


Girls Gossip

by Garchomp445



Category: Fire Emblem Series, Fire Emblem: Kakusei | Fire Emblem: Awakening
Genre: Almost every shepherd is mentioned, F/F, Friendship, Overwhelming emotion, light blood and gore
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-06-19
Updated: 2015-07-24
Packaged: 2018-04-05 05:03:44
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 25,370
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4166997
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Garchomp445/pseuds/Garchomp445
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Severa tries to get the future girls to hang out more, but one thing after another gets in her way. Most of all a grumpy, selfish knight who won't let her tent turn into a super-cool clubhouse at 11:00 at night.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Prologue

“Hey Kjelle, I have an idea!”

“Severa, get out of my tent. It’s way too late for your shit.”

Severa flinches internally, but remains excited. She gives a stern-ish expression to make sure Kjelle knows this is serious. She comments back to Kjelle smugly, saying

“Oh, just hanging out with my bestest friend!”

There’s a short pause as Severa tries to make an endearing, sincere face, ending up slightly weirding out Kjelle with her cheeriness. She continues, saying

“Sure, it was totally annoying having to re-teach you all of your own combat skills, but think of how much closer we became as a result!”

Kjelle was too tired. Whatever Severa was planning, it could wait until the morning. Besides, it was already clear that Severa was infatuated with her, she didn’t have any more work to do on that front. As long as no one found out that she had such sensitive feelings towards the insufferable mercenary, she could get as close to Severa as she wanted. Or as far away.

“Severa… It’s too late. Go back to bed.”

As Severa replies, she leans down towards Kjelle to accentuate her next point.

“We’re so much better than everyone else now, it’s like we physically make each other better just by knowing each other’s weaknesses. We should get to know all the other girls like that, especially Lucina. I know you have some special feelings for her.”

Oh no. Has Severa figured it out?

“Har! Wha-What would make you think that?!”

Severa, leaning back up, shifts her expression from slightly smug, to extremely smug, and titters

“Ooh, you thought I didn’t notice? You’re always trying to get next to her, showing off your weapons and muscles, and most of all… Nerding out about combat!”

Kjelle goes from internally screaming, to internally laughing, to even more exhausted than before. She decides to strengthen the façade rather than allow Severa a slight victory.

“Ugh, you really got me there. Fine, I do enjoy Lucina’s company,” but regrets her decision to tell Severa once she sees an insufferable grin grow on her face, “but that’s not something that you need to stay up all night to talk about!”

Severa is losing this argument, and knows that it was a long and stressful day. Just planting the seeds of this hopefully insidious idea will suffice for now. Besides, Kjelle could always out-lecture her, especially on boring combat tactics, so maybe it’s best to not stick around.

“Fine! I’ll be here tomorrow, though. Just wait, we’ll have the whole camp in your tent before you know it.”

Kjelle sighs internally. Severa is as cute as a button when she’s trying to strong arm her way past anything in her way, and she’s right. Learning to cover each other’s weaknesses, working as a team, skills that can only be acquired by socializing. Ugh, why can’t everything be as simple as a wrestling match?

Kjelle barely registers Severa’s indignant hair flip as she turns to leave Kjelle’s tent, disbanding her intercourse with the tired knight, who finally drifts into sleep.


	2. Chapter 1

“Severa, we’ve been assigned to spar together this morning. I look forward to matching my skills against yours.”

Lucina seemed perpetually serious, especially about practice. Of course there was a softer side, but only with great difficulty could it be reached. I mean, opening up about her feelings and telling such a strong, pained, and beautiful person how much respect Severa has for her? That’s completely unfeasible. Instead, she could just talk about getting all of the girls together in Kjelle’s tent, Lucina would be easy to convince about the benefits of strengthening their bonds and battle prowess. With a distracted, almost wistful grin on her face, she alienated Lucina with her obviously unusual response, standing before the breakfast tent usually didn’t cause major revelations or head trauma which would force Severa to be locked into one expression. Her voice set with concern, Lucina says:

“Severa, are you all right? Your expression is very… excited.”

Quickly trying to recompose herself, Severa completely changes her expression, to hopefully a more mocking, silly expression. She responds

“Oh sorry, I was just wondering whether or not your swordplay could keep up with me!”

“I guarantee it can do that.”

Safe in the knowledge that Severa is as mean as always, Lucina makes a tiny smile as she turns around to attend breakfast.

Woah, that was close. She really needs to stop being so excited about this idea of hers, but it was really nice getting close to Kjelle. It was shoddy of her to project her feelings onto Kjelle, but Kjelle was good friends with Lucina anyway, and really, who could possibly figure out that she’s gay? I mean, she’s friends with almost all of the boys in camp, Inigo notwithstanding, and she’s had tons of practice hiding her emotions.

Severa follows Lucina into the large mess tent, glancing around to make sure that there’s still a spot far away from her mother. Of course not. Cordelia’s made sure that every bench is full except for one spot right in front of her. Letting out an exaggerated sigh, she trudges past Sully, Priam, Kjelle, and Walhart having a heated argument about the effectiveness of hammers on poorly armoured units, with Kjelle taking on Walhart with the argument that his insane skill with stopping hammer blows doesn’t count as him wearing little armour. Severa tries to listen to the exchange for a moment, but loses interest when she hears Walhart explain that the technique he uses forces his arm to be exposed for three entire seconds, and its armour is very similar to Sully’s paladin armour… then Severa completely loses interest.

Maybe she could stall for time at the next table, meandering around and near it. The food’s pretty close, though, and looks especially delicious… Stahl and Sumia seem to be deep in conversation, whispering and pointing at the other end of the cafeteria. Sumia’s whisper is not particularly furtive, and Severa picks up her end of the conversation:

“She plays the harp? Wow!”

“A duet?”

“Did you ask Severa if she…”

Then Severa abruptly stops eavesdropping for some reason. Yet another of her mother’s talents that wasn’t passed down. They looked so excited, too! She can’t even imagine how cool it would be to play with her mother, but Severa could only ever learn how to play the french horn! And no one writes french horn - harp duets! She also hoped that no one noticed her pained grimace as she plodded over to the almost empty pots of food in hopes of literally being able to scrape the bottom of the barrel. Avoiding talking with her mother is going to be the worst on an empty stomach.

 

\--

 

“Steel yourself!”

Lucina lunges forward, striking out with the wooden practice sword, but doesn’t come close to hitting Severa, her nimble backflip setting her on the other side of the practice ring.

“Ha! You’ve gotta do better than that!”

“This is growing frustrating, Severa.” Lucina lunges again, but this time, Severa does a front flip, and smacks Lucina in the back. A yelp of her own surprise almost causes Lucina to lose focus, but she sees her opening. Using just one hand, she focuses her power through her blade for just a moment, then whips it over her head and into Severa’s proud face.

“AGH!”

Lucina offers a hand to the mercenary lying on the ground, and cocks her head to the side slightly as she ponders what happened. Could Severa have known that she wouldn’t have an immediate response for an overhead attack? Lucina simply improvised that move for a difficult situation. She pondered, then stated

“Severa, how did you do that?”

Severa, meanwhile, has a smug, proud expression on her face, with just a hint of uncharacteristic exuberance.

“Uh, you mean finally hit you?”

“Yes.”

“Believe it or not, I’ve been taking a few hints from Laurent and Robin.”

Lucina looks much more interested now, and unconsciously sheathes her sword and puts on a concentrated expression, completely oblivious to the wooden practice sword clattering on the ground at her side. She sees a stifled giggle from Severa, but chalks it up to her unusual actions in general. Lucina rejoins the conversation with a piercing question

“In what way?”

Severa smiles openly at this, saying

“Well, I haven’t taken any hints from their constant stalking of everyone in the camp, if that’s what you’re wondering…” and tilts her head in an odd way before continuing “but I have noticed some things about your fighting style.”

“And what would that be?”

“You have a very… Direct way of fighting. It’s good if your opponent is concentrated on you, but one odd move, and your flank’s exposed.”

“I’ll keep that in mind. For now, though, let’s continue to spar.”

“Wait wait! I’m not done yet! Don’t you want to know how I found that out?”

Lucina tries to unsheathe her sword, but lets out a curse under her breath when she realizes that she dropped it on the ground. Kneeling down to pick it up, she responds, saying

“Yes, but Robin’s giving you a suspicious look.”

Lucina charges, this time keeping her sword in the middle of her body, swinging it up and out to counter Severa’s backflip, hitting her in the back of the leg. Severa flops face-first onto the ground, Lucina stands overhead, sword in a downward stabbing position.

“Rematch?” Lucina says nonchalantly, a hint of a smile tickling its way up her face.

“Now listen here, princess…” as Severa tries to stand up, her face red and brown with dust and embarrassment, “Sometimes just socially interacting with people can improve your skills!”

She jumps up into a ready pose, almost knocking aside Lucina’s helpful hand, and barely waiting for Lucina herself to get ready before sending a sloppy uppercut her way. Lucina easily sends her sword down, and tries to disarm Severa with a twist, but Severa releases one hand from her sword to punch Lucina in the face, loosening her grip on the wooden sword. From there, Severa easily disarms Lucina, then points her sword at Lucina’s throat.

“Sorry! But if you’d listen for a second, that’s obviously not something that a risen would do, right? Who have been mostly what we’ve been fighting! Since I was watching your movements and techniques, I figured that out!” Then, under her breath, she adds “Gods, this is like teaching a brick how to dance!”

The unflappable Lucina merely nods, and although she does ready herself, she also asks

“So what would you suppose we do?”

With a heavy sigh, presumably of relief, Severa continues, relaxing her pose.

“After we’re supposed to go to bed, all of the girls go into someone’s tent, and we just talk for a while. It’ll be fun and educational!”

“Hm. I’ll consider it.”

“Finally!”

“Severa. Get back to sparring.”

Severa stands motionless while her face puts forth its best cherry impression, and stiffly responds to the taciturn Lieutenant standing just a yard behind her

“Of course sir.”

“Very good.”

Lucina lets out a tiny grin, preparing to pay Severa back for the bruises she’s sustained.

 

\--

 

“Uuuugh…”

“Wow, did you TRY to cover yourself in bruises?”

“Kjelle… Not… Helping... “

On the road to their next battle, Kjelle and Severa march together. Kjelle mostly to laugh at Severa’s completely devastated body. Lucina gave her one hell of a beating, especially after Frederick’s interruption. Other than that, it was a very average battle. Much like the graveyard full of extremely tough risen that the shepherds had to slog through, there was another grave which needed to be cleared of risen. This one was in southern Chon’sin, but since they were already in the area, having just picked up the radiant hero, it was a simple task to clear out this grave. It was unusual that Say’ri was discussing strategy with Robin and Chrom, but Severa paid it no heed. She had concerns, especially those for her partner for this battle. She was to be paired up with Kjelle, and hadn’t finished taunting her yet. Severa walks faster, then turns around to face Kjelle, making a smug, supremely satisfied expression

“Oh, but what else happened this morning? What was it… Hey, I wasn’t the only one failing miserably. How did that argument with Walhart go?”

“Shut up! I just hadn’t memorized every inch of his armour yet! Did you know that he wears a custom piece into battle? Every inch he built himself, so that it could take both hammer and beast killer blows just like a normal unit. How could I have known about the beast killer immunity?!”

Severa giggles softly, then continues ribbing her companion.

“The omniscient weapon master Kjelle has met her match! You should just retire from war altogether. Clearly you’re not up for this.”

“Oh hardy har. Do I need to remind you of your own skill deficiencies?”

“Did you find something else that I didn’t teach you in Severa's Combat Class for Lady Warriors?”

Kjelle’s face grows red as she remembers her marginally embarrassing facade she made up to spend more time with Severa. Unfortunately for her, Severa views the sudden change in colour differently.

“Hah! You don’t have anything to say about that!”

Kjelle can’t imagine anything more embarrassing than being wrong towards the smuggest person in camp. Still, that toothy grin is a just reward, and what else could they have these fun arguments over? Oh wait, last night. She’s going to bring it up right now, isn’t she…

“And speaking of things you’re wrong about, could I PLEASE let everyone into your tent for some socializing? It’ll be fun! Besides, if teaching you taught me one thing, it’s that you need some practice in that regard.”

“Ugh… I only need more fighting practice. You need some too.”

“Against these pathetic zombies? PLEASE.”

“We don’t just fight the risen. What if we came across an elite band of bandits, or powerful Grimleal cultists? You need to be prepared for everything.”

“Maybe, but not for this battle! I could go in wearing a skirt and still come out unscathed.”

“Like your mom?”

Severa’s slight smile gives way to a slight grimace, then she faces forward again to hide the red creeping up her cheeks. Quickly she snaps back

“She rides a pegasus, it’s hardly a comparison.” then slowly trails off as compliments slip from between her lips “And she’s so good they’d probably fall apart at just the sight of her sword…”

“Wait, you’re just trying to distract me! I had a speech prepared!”

While she doesn’t actually have a speech prepared, Kjelle rolling her eyes gives her more than enough time to run in front of Kjelle, put on a stern expression, then start listing stuff off the top of her head. She thinks back to all of those times in the dark future where just a little more skill would’ve let them break through the line, or avoid a spike through the arm. Then returns to reality, full of renewed vigour. With this intensity, she states to Kjelle

“Once we started hanging out, every fight became easier. We knew each others patterns, we knew where the risen would go, we could both analyze everything better.”

“That’s beca…”

“I’m not finished!”

Severa puts forth a tiny bit of a pout before continuing, running a tiny shiver down Kjelle’s spine

“Furthermore, I did the same thing to Lucina! Just looking at her fighting for a little bit let me beat her. I mean, once, but it’s better than… OOOFF!”

Severa runs backwards into a recently stopped cart, almost falling into a rack of silver lances, but Kjelle grabs her hand and pulls her forward in time. Severa immediately reacts while turning to look

“HEY! Who put a box right in the middle of the ro… ooh.”

The entire convoy has stopped, and Chrom, Frederick, Robin, Say’ri, Laurent, Miriel, Cordelia, Flavia, Lucina, Morgan, and even Basilio are racing back through the convoy, shouting something. Kjelle strains to listen, forgetting to loose her grip on Severa’s hand, but Severa is distracted by what she almost ran into. Amazed at Kjelle’s foresight, she’s humbled enough to turn beet red and gasp her mouth open slightly, eyes wide. She speaks softly to Kjelle, who pays enough attention to hear

“Wow… Thanks so much, Kjelle…”

Slightly bewildered at the total disappearance of any bitterness on Severa’s face, and more in love than ever, Kjelle lightly responds, with her highest voice in years

“Yeah… No problem…”

They gaze into each other’s eyes for just a split second before Say’ri jumps right next to them and belts instructions

“Kjelle! Severa! Follow me!”

“Yes, ma’am!”

Kjelle dutifully responds, before turning red herself and letting go of Severa’s hand, the owner of which merely replies

“Huh?”

Before blindly following Kjelle after Say’ri to the front of the convoy.

 

\--

 

“Huff, huff… Wait, what’s going on!?”

Now in the company of Lucina, Say’ri, Brady, Lon’qu, Kellam, Owain, Gregor, Miriel and Maribelle, her thrice-spoken plea is finally answered

“Dear, do not bother our leaders with such trivialities.”

Severa thinks up several witty comebacks, such as ‘says the most trivial person here’, ‘you’ll look like a deer in lamplight once I’m done with you’ and whatnot, but Lucina’s interjection silences her

“It might be important to know for this mission, Maribelle. Severa, we’re completing the mission with a smaller party. A massive group of risen was spotted heading towards the tomb we’re assaulting, so we’re splitting into two groups, one to deal with the extra risen, and another to figure out what’s so important inside of the tomb.”

“Wait, so we’re splitting our forces into 10% and 90%? That’s not fair at all! We’re going to be slaughtered!”

“Fie! You have no idea what we’re dealing with, Child. We’re getting the easier passage here.”

Is everyone against Severa today? She’s boiling with barely contained rage, and easily thinks up some choice insults for the snippy princess, and opens her mouth to respond, but Lucina pipes up again

“Actually, this is another good thing to know. The group of risen attacking our main force is easily over a hundred strong.”

Brady, previously betting with Kjelle over who Severa’s going to yell at first, pipes up

“Ah, so what yer saying is even if tha tomb is packed from floor to ceiling with risen, they’re getting the worst of it?”

At this comment, both Owain and Maribelle begin speaking, equally loud and energetic

“Brady! Watch your… We shall weave a tapestry of blades… Proper form and grammar is crucial to… and the risen shall weep for their fallen… then make sure the tea is set properly, I’m telling you, social engagements… clatter of blades and the smell of elfire shall rei…”

The group is suddenly interrupted from their sprint by a large suit of armour in the middle of the road announcing

“Uh, guys, we’...”

Before being interrupted again by Maribelle and Owain trying to speak over each other

“Their destruction is inevita… ARE YOU EVEN LISTEN…”

“ALL OF YOU, STOP.”

Lon’qu finally became annoyed enough to say something, then also sheepishly realizes that they are also at the tomb, hiding the embarrassment behind his stoic expression and dramatic reveal of his blade.

“We’re here.”

“Thank you, Lon’qu. Everyone, listen up. I’ll be the leading tactician for this battle.” Lucina steps to the front of the party, between them and the entrance to the tomb. Failing to notice Severa’s piercing glares directed towards Say’ri and Maribelle, she plunges on to the strategy she made up during the sprint here.

“We all need to protect Say’ri. Apparently, someone has sighted a ghostly version of Yen’fay in the area. If he really is still around, Say’ri will be the only one who can talk some sense into him. Severa and Kjelle, protect her left flank, Gregor and Lon’qu, protect her right, and Owain and I will attack them head on with Say’ri. Miriel, Maribelle, and Brady, use your range advantage to help out everyone else, protect the rear flank, and make sure no one gets overly injured. Any questions?”

Severa is livid, but decides to cool off for now. Pairing her up with Kjelle is probably for the best, she’ll have someone to rant to at the least. Everyone else nods and sets into their positions, but an uncertain voice calls out from the back of the column

“Lucina? What about me?”

“GWAH! Kellam! How did you get here?!”

“I, uh, walked?”

“Orders, then… Assist Owain and I, try to lead enemies far away from the healers. Kjelle and Severa are supremely skilled, so don’t fret about giving them a larger load.”

Mildly proud of her improvised strategy, Lucina strikes a heroic pose, failing to notice that everyone is already as positioned as possible for just a second, then leading the group down with a fearsome

“CHARGE!”

 

\--

 

Immediately splitting up once they hit the main chamber, they seize up at the sight of the massive army before them.

“It really is full o’ risen, floor to ceiling.”

“Full of risen, darling.”

Lucina realizes the daunting challenge, but prepares a second charge by concentrating on Owain. She almost nervously coughs, breaking the intimidating silence long enough to declare

“Ready to wax poetic about the risen we’ll slaughter?”

“I already am, our souls ablaze for the glory of battle!”

“Ah, the passion of young men. Gregor shall fight!”

“I’ll kill far more of them than you, old man.”

“Ho ho! A challenge!”

Lucina, Owain, Lon’qu and Gregor prepare their swords, just as Kjelle and Severa realize that the four of them are about to sprint into an army. Severa snips to Kjelle

“These idiots would be less self-destructive if they’d strapped Bolganones to their chests.”

“Good one.”

The six of them rush off into the tomb, Kellam, Brady and Miriel barely trailing along.

 

\--

 

“More tea, Say’ri?”

“Always.”

The two of them stroll along behind, watching the first line of risen shatter into unrecognizability.

 

\--

 

In the heat of battle, Severa tries to converse with her partner, barely deflecting swords and arrows with her own sword and shield. She jumps over a swordmaster’s blade, and pierces through its entire body, instantly vapourizing it, then shouts at Kjelle

“You really should give it more thought!”

Kjelle smashes aside an assassin with her shield, then stomps on it while plunging her spear through a trickster raising its levin sword towards Severa. She shouts back

“Pay more attention!”

“Attention to what? Your social ineptitude? That’s still a problem, you know.”

Severa and Kjelle cooperate on a particularly tough swordmaster, but Kjelle’s shield is smashed from her hand by a hammer-wielding hero. An opportunistic assassin fires a few arrows, but each one bounces off Kjelle’s armour. Kjelle prepares to stab the hero, but Severa manages to take out both it, and a worryingly close trickster to her right. With a sigh, Kjelle realizes Severa’s strength, and jealousy flows through her veins for just a short instant, but more than too long in the midst of a battle. She leans down to get the shield, and responds, angrily

“You know what, this is really all about you invading my personal space.”

Severa is busily chopping down a swordmaster, and is almost hit by a short axe before countering it perfectly. She turns around for just an instant to see Kjelle’s jealous sneer, but puts it out her mind and jumps towards an assassin, splitting it in two. Kjelle continues to rant, idly skewering the hero lining up another shot on Severa

“Trying to get into my tent, constantly insulting me…”

The battle becomes more of a haze, she sees Severa working almost three times as hard as she is, now. Why is Kjelle even here? She spies off in the distance a bright orange suit of armour peeling around a collapsed pillar with assassins and swordmasters after it. Ugh. Severa can probably take all of them down, too. Severa struggles with outsmarting a particularly bright swordmaster, only half-listening to Kjelle’s hysterical rant, and receives a cut across her right arm for the trouble. She slices it in half and turns around, the world suddenly growing slower with intense adrenaline. She sees Kjelle standing with her eyes closed and arms open, and on the other end of the hallway, three assassins preparing to fire, and four swordmasters charging across and open field.

Kellam is cowering behind a half-collapsed doorway, hoping he lost the risen.

Kjelle doesn’t snap out of it, her frustration at keeping her love from Severa boiling over into jealousy for just this next moment as she just about screeches

“You just need to learn some boundaries!”

while Severa leaps right in front of her, taking an arrow to the right leg, side, and front as she spins. Blood speckles onto Kjelle’s armour, finally forcing her to snap out of it. In just a moment, Severa smashes one swordmaster to bits, parries another, collapses on her injured leg and gets a slash across her left shoulder, punches the fourth swordmaster with her left arm, knocking it to the ground, and collapses to the ground herself, taking the swordmaster out by stabbing in its general direction. Still facing the assassins, one fires an arrow directly at her head, but she nimbly dodges it, allowing it to merely lodge itself in her shoulder. She loses feeling in her arms and left leg, then collapses backward, bleeding out across the ground.

Kjelle charges. One swing of her lance takes out both of the remaining swordmasters, and the puny arrows do nothing to her armour and shield. She takes a step forward, shielding her face, then shouts with a quavering, truly hysterical voice at the shell-shocked Kellam

“GET MARIBELLE OR BRADY! NOW!”

He sprints off, leaving Kjelle to battle and regret. She literally told Severa to say away from her, right before Severa saved her life. Tears begin rolling down her face, and she takes out her frustration and sorrow on two assassins, their leather armour disintegrating under her lance. The third races at her with a knife, but a quick bash with her shield and impalation mean its end. Looking to the rest of the battlefield, she sees her allies totally overwhelmed, but the left side nearly clear, and rushes to their aid.

 

\--

 

“Oh, Severa, you’re finally awake!”

A tiny voice comes from the cot to Severa’s right. She feels awful, like three dozen sheep ran over her at the same time, for a few hours. She tries to get up, but every joint and limb is in agony. She hears the slight, lilting voice come from the adjacent cot again.

“Please don’t try to get up, you’re still very injured.”

“Ugh… Noire… what happened?”

“Well, uh, I was already in here last night, when you arrived. You were covered in bandages and blood, I was so scared you were dead!”

Noire sits up and gazes at Severa, apparently trying to reassure herself merely by staring hard enough. Severa realizes the need to comfort Noire, and braves the wracking pain to sit up. Her arms feel like they’re on fire, and her left shoulder explodes in pain, but she disguises her grimace with a sweet little smile and sits up with perfect posture. She replies with a snippy, but well-meaning remark

“Aw, come over here, you big baby.”

then widens her arms for a hug. Noire immediately gets to her feet, slower than usual, and warmly embraces Severa. Tears roll down her face, and she cries

“Waaah, I’m so glad you’re back. I felt so much clumsier without you.”

“I’m not going anywhere, so no more worrying about me.”

Severa retains her half-grimace, half-smile, and changes the subject.

“So, I’ve been gone for a day? How did the battle go?”

Noire let go of Severa, and took a moment to look around, but Severa scooted over slightly on her cot, then patted the now-vacant spot. Noire and Severa enjoyed the intimacy of the shared bed.

“Oh, it was fine, I mean, we won, but a swordmaster got up close to me and sliced off, uh, the top part of my kneecap. Then I fainted.”

“Wait, so you woke up later that day?”

“Yeah, I didn’t think it was too much later, but it was dark at the time.”

So finding information out from Noire is like pulling teeth. Maybe she can just stall until someone with a better grasp on the situation comes along. Besides, it’s not she dislikes spending time with Noire. She leans against the headboard, relaxing her arms and shoulders, but still in pain, which is mostly a sharp point in the middle right of her abdomen. Feels like her liver’s on fire. She forces out a more pleasant expression, not that Noire would notice, and continues asking Noire about her day.

“So you’ve been here for a tiny knee injury since last night? Wow, Noire, to accomplish that, I had to be stabbed four times.”

“Oh, I’m, not actually still here for that… I, uh, burned myself while helping Kjelle with dinner tonight. I just came here for burn cream, but Brady asked me to keep watch on you, since he had to leave too.”

“Thanks Noire, that is nice of you.”

Suddenly, the tent flap burst open, and a familiar spiky-haired visage popped through. Excitedly, and with a hint of tears, Brady exclaimed

“SEVERA! You’re awake!”

He sprints over to Severa’s left side, not noticing her immediate defensive posture and grimace as he kneels down and wraps around her torso with a hug. All of Severa’s weird piercing bruises light up at once, and she accidentally bites down on her tongue while trying to yell at Brady for the rough hug.

“I’m so glad you’re ok!”

“OW OW GODS BRADY GET OFF!!”

Brady releases her, but doesn’t move any further away, he exclaims

“Geez! Sorry! I… Just…”

Brady’s face now obviously has tears racing down it, and he snivels a little before Severa comments on him, with a comforting, but still smug, grin

“Wow, you’d think that if you were really concerned, you’d try not to give me a heart attack by jumping on me. I’m not going anywhere, though, so lose that frown!”

“Ha, yer the same as always. Good to know Severa the merciless is still in business.”

Brady clumsily tries to wipe off some of his tears while standing up, succeeding only in spreading the wet stains across his face. The last phrase of Brady’s hangs in the back of Severa’s mind for just a moment, contemplating whether Kjelle thought the same during the battle. She has other concerns, though, and now that Brady’s here, she puts on her best, although pained, pestering face, and says

“So, Brady, what happened once I blacked out?”

“Well, all I seen was Kellam rushing towards me, then gesturing towards you. You were crumpled on the ground, pierced in five different places, and bleeding out. I had to use an entire vulnerary an’ half of my healing stick to keep you alive…”

Brady starts tearing up again, so Severa hits another switch to jolt the conversation back into gear, saying hastily

“How did Kjelle do?”

“Oh, right, uh, after you fainted, she rushed at the risen chief, smashing everything in ‘er way. Then, right after she was done wit dat, she sprinted back over to you, and just bawled her eyes out. I don’t think she left your side until she had to help cook t’night.”

Severa stares at the ground for a while, letting it all soak in. Kjelle didn’t actually despise her? What was going on there? At least they won, and Kjelle sounded all right. Her aches and pains returned en masse, but she managed to remain focused. Maybe this would be a good time to try to convince Kjelle of her meetup idea, and it’d at least give them a chance to talk. Severa tries to move out of bed, but feels her arms and shoulders protesting every slightest adjustment, and the protests of someone else, too

“Hey! Don’t get up yet! Yer still more sickly than a chicken with its own pox!”

“Fine, but chickens can’t even get chicken pox.”

“I knew that!”

Whatever. She’ll just sneak out once Brady’s back is turned, limbs be damned. Besides, she does have someone who would be willing to talk to Kjelle for her. She watches Brady warily, waiting for her moment, but also addresses Noire again, saying

“So, Noire, could I ask for a favour?”

“Of course! What can I do to help?”

She whispers the next part into Noire’s ear so Brady can’t hear, even though he seems very preoccupied with restocking the healing staves and vulneraries in the tent.

“I’m planning to get all of the girls together to hang out, do you want to join?”

“Sure, as long as you’ll be there…”

“Of course I’ll be there! Also, “ She raises her voice back to a normal speaking level “Once you go to dinner, could you try to convince Kjelle to do the same?”

“To… uh, hang out with us?”

“Yeah, I’m bedridden for a while, but I would’ve done it myself.”

“Ok, I think I got it.”

Yup, she just needs to keep whittling away Kjelle’s defenses, and eventually she’d see what was good for her. Maybe they could do it somewhere other than Kjelle’s tent, if she’s really that upset about it. Sigh. She’s still in so much pain, but at least half of that is from hunger. She hasn’t eaten anything for an entire day. She calls out to Brady

“Hey, room service, could I get something to eat?”

“Pshaw, you’ll have to wait for dinner like the rest of us,”

Severa pouts at him as Noire looks at her face and giggles, and Brady continues on undisturbed,

“ but there’s some water next to your bed you can have.”

“Right, water’s going to cure a whole day’s worth of fasting.”

“Hey, I’m not a mulberry bush! I can’t magic up some food.”

“Brady, it’s a mulberry tree.”

She hears him shout ‘fiddlesticks’ under his breath, then move back over to the half-filled table, vulneraries and staves neatly organized for quick deployment. He leaves the tent through a rear flap. Severa is feeling at least minimally better now, and views the large jug of water to her left, along with several cups. She comments idly

“Noire, would you like some water, too?”

“If, it’s not a bother…”

Severa moves over to the water, and once she’s not facing Noire, rolls her eyes. Only one person in the world would worry that much about something that inconsequential. At least she’s not blowing up in anyone’s face. Each tiny movement causes a bit of pain, and she can almost feel Noire’s concerned gaze peering through her. She’s stronger than this, and probably could’ve stopped those three arrows without hurting herself. Maybe she should’ve listened to Kjelle.

One of her hands shakily holds a cup steady, while the weight of the jug performs contortions on her other wrist. She fights through, but tilts the jug a bit too far, and drenches the cup, the surrounding area, and her hand. Her instantaneous reaction is to slam the jug back down onto the small wooden table, making a loud BANG, and forcing Noire to place a concerned hand on Severa’s left shoulder. She speaks, timidly, but firm enough

“Um. Maybe you should let me do this…”

“F-Fine.”

Severa wipes her sopping wet hand off on the sheets uselessly planted beneath her as Noire quickly jumps out of bed and walks around to the water. Severa hangs her head, embarrassed at her failure to merely pour a glass of water, and also plotting her next move. Spying on Noire will be a bit difficult, but pull the right moves on Brady, and maybe he’d be on board with it. Just like that, she’s got a new plan, and is smugly staring off into the distance, before she’s interrupted by a meek voice directly in front of her.

“Severa? Are you…”

“Gwah! Sorry! I wasn’t doing anythi… I mean, I was just lost in thought, sorry. Thanks for getting the water.”

“I glad I could help you for once.”

Noire gives her a tiny smile, the toothiness indicating how out of practice her smile is. Severa gives her a brief smile, and takes the offered glass of water. She speaks while Noire takes a draught of water

“So, what exactly was Kjelle making in the kitchen? We kind of need to prepare for what kind of awfulness will be shoved our way.”

“Hehe, yeah. I think she was making pot pies. Oh, but it wasn’t just her, Robin and Lon’qu were also helping out.”

Severa drinks some water to fill the easy silence before continuing, but before she can continue, she hears a *shiff* of two of the medical tent’s flaps opening. Severa turns around to see Kjelle striding through the front, and Brady coming through the back. Noire and Kjelle both have strong reactions to the sight before them, Noire starting by speaking

“Oh, Kjelle, she’s awa…”

but is then cut off by Kjelle’s stiff statement

“Dinner’s ready.”

and rapidly reddening face. Kjelle turns on a dime, every joint apparently having seized up, and exits oddly. Wow. With that kind of performance, Brady would definitely be up for mischief with Severa. She quickly, fluidly speaks to the thin girl behind her, not moving so as not to reveal the growing grin of hilarity she shares with Brady.

“Well, Noire, it was wonderful to have you, but have a nice time at dinner.”

“Ah… see you around, then…”

“Oh, and don’t forget to try to convince Kjelle!”

“Right! I won’t fail you!”

“Uh, you don’t have to take this that seriously…”

While Severa is a bit concerned, she’s much more interested in tailing Kjelle and Noire right now. Not thinking about the possible consequences is something she does very well. Noire marches steadily after Kjelle, quickly catching up, and beginning to formulate her own plan. Severa looks straight at Brady, and both of them crack up laughing at what they just saw. Brady is slightly more sympathetic, though

“Poor Kjelle, she probably won’t look you in the eye for a dog’s age!”

“I know! It’s even funnier if you know that Noire’s going to try to convince Kjelle to socialize more!”

Brady thinks about the two, one a paragon of battle, the other weaker than a mayfly. Kjelle constantly looked down upon and berated the poor, sickly archer. If there was one person Noire had more antipathy towards, it could only be her own mother. It takes a second, but it all clicks, and their shared laughter takes on a bitter feel now that he realizes how serious the situation is. He speaks quickly

“Wait a second, that’s an ‘orrible idea!”

Brady’s sudden comment gives Severa a moment of clarity. Kjelle leaving in a huff, Noire being overly serious, this was going to explode in everyone’s face. Severa’s tense jaw drops significantly as she puts the situation together, then says

“Oh gods, you’re right. Kjelle’s going to get so upset over this, I should’ve talked to her myself. After she freaked out in the tomb, I should’ve… I... Brady! We need to stop them before Noire explodes!”

Brady, panicked as well, but not totally comprehending Severa’s rushed out rant, spits out

“Huh? What about the tomb?”

Severa shoves on her metal boots in record time, then jumps to her feet, mind racing and body screaming in pain. She shouts

“Kjelle hasn’t gotten over it yet.”

“Over what?!”

But Severa’s gone, racing into the darkness through the rear tent flap. Guilt races through their minds, Brady having laughed at Kjelle when he should’ve known that something was wrong. Severa knew something was wrong, but laughed anyway. Ugh. Everyone already knows that she’s a terrible person.

With the glowing mess tent in the distance, and far too much ground to cover, Severa grits her teeth and sprints for it, leaving Brady in the dust. Only one of her legs is especially painful, sending a jolt of fire up with every other step. She spots the propped-open entrance, with two people silhouetted in the lantern light of the tent. Even from this far away, she can hear Noire begin shouting

“BLOOD AND THUNDER, YOU SHALL HEAR MY DEMANDS!”

Kjelle says something calmly back, inaudible from the distance, but this only seems to make Noire madder. Noire shouts again

“YES, SHE DID, BUT THAT HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH THIS! YOU SHALL LISTEN TO MY DEMANDS!”

Kjelle seems to shout something, slightly too soft for Severa to hear, then Noire seems totally taken aback, and murmurs something into her hands. Severa is approaching quickly, though, and hears Kjelle’s next exhausted, but still furious statment

“What was it that she told you to say, anyway?!”

Noire’s meek voice returns, and Severa arrives just in time to interrupt Noire’s stammering

“Um… She, er…”

Severa, not even out of breath, almost slides in between Kjelle and Noire, and responds

“Noire, I’m so sorry, I didn’t mean… I mean, thanks for trying. I shouldn’t have asked you to ask Kjelle. And speaking of Kjelle…”

She glances up at both of their faces, previously bowed slightly for apology, and sees that both are extremely red, and sharply angled downward. Looking inside of the tent, and in just an instant, she sees Tharja cackling to herself just inside the entrance, Libra clutching a holy symbol at the same table, Henry sitting next to Tharja and laughing madly, Panne at a different table to the right glaring at Severa, Gaius trying to hide a grin, but also desperately reaching across the table for Walhart’s axe to stop him from getting up from the table. Next to Gaius, Gregor has his head in his hands, and Vaike is preparing to stand up. On the adjacent table behind Gregor, Nowi holds Donnel’s hands excitedly, and Donnel looks very concerned. Lissa, at the head of the table and middle of the mess tent is standing up as well, staff ready and with an anxious expression, especially glancing back over at Walhart and Vaike. Maribelle holds her hand as if to pull her back to the table, and Olivia mirrors Gregor’s expression. Right behind that table, she sees everyone at the kid’s table standing up, Lucina especially active, nearly past her aunt Lissa. She can’t see anyone at the table right behind Lissa, but the table next to that seems almost completely oblivious, Robin and Chrom engaged in some theatrics with Basilio and Flavia, but Frederick and Tiki are taking sidelong glances at the tent entrance.

Everything is crashing down too quickly, but Severa makes a split second decision regardless. She grabs both Kjelle and Noire, too embarrassed to resist, and drags them back toward the medical tent. She spies Brady, then shouts a command at him

“Brady! Could you delay Walhart for me?”

“Uh, why?”

“I think he’s going try murdering me.”

“WHAT?! Could you explain at least one thing?!”

“Please!”

Severa vanishes into the row of tents before offering up anything, then releases Kjelle and Noire. Psyching herself up briefly, she immediately says

“I owe both of you an apology…”

“Damn right you do!”

but Kjelle’s voice betrays more hurt than anger, cracking at the end. Severa’s own appearance isn’t doing much better, and tears start trickling from her eyes, both from the pain of sprinting on injured legs, and watching her friends embarrass themselves because of her. The other girls’ expressions soften as well, Kjelle opening her mouth to almost apologize, but gets cut off by Severa’s slight meandering

“Sorry, both of you, this was my fault. Kjelle, I’m sorry for telling Noire to tell you what I should’ve, and Noire, I can’t say sorry enough, I just, um, I’ll try not to embarrass you again.”

Noire looks like she feels a bit better, but something has still obviously gone unsaid. She looks up at Severa, still beet-red, and tries to sputter out

“We-well, it’s n-not your…”

“I said that Noire was your girlfriend.”

Kjelle bluntly adds, her face a magnificent shade of crimson. A tear crawls down her face, and Severa becomes the same colour almost instantaneously. Severa nearly shrieks back

“You WHAT?!”

Both girls flinch, and Severa realizes the need for comfort instead of rebuttal. She’s going to be super upset if this ends up pushing them farther apart, but doesn’t want to reveal anything about herself. It was bad enough when Cordelia found out, but maybe these two would be less interested in her love life. Hopefully. She takes a remarkably deep breath, lets out a sigh, very close to on par with one of Cordelia’s, then reveals

“We-well, mom already knew…” Gulp “That I’m not straight, so I’m sure that won’t be a huge surprise for any of the shepherds. Besides, Noire and I aren’t dating, so it won’t be hard to assuade any rumours, if that’s what you’re worried about. But since when have you given a damn for what the other shepherds think of you, Kjelle? I mean, I can see N…”

Severa stops before she can dig herself into any deeper of a hole, but she just couldn’t stop talking, and insults have come so, painfully, natural to her. Kjelle gets the hint, and even though she’s absolutely ecstatic, she hides it just long enough to spur Severa around a little. She exclaims

“Har! I have a reputation to uphold, Severa. They don’t call me the omniscient weapon master for nothing.”

Severa thinks of how Noire might view this for a moment, the quiet archer having stood by quite patiently before Severa addresses her directly

“Uh, sorry if some of our engagements might seem a bit odd now, I didn’t mean for it to be weird in the medical tent.”

“Oh no, I’m not, erm, gay. But I am okay with you being gay! It’s not that, just...”

Severa thinks to herself that Noire really doesn’t have an idea of what about that situation is supposed to make her uncomfortable, but it’s nice to have such a loyal friend. She brings Noire in for a hug, not noticing Kjelle’s obvious flinch at the activity, and states, clearly

“I understand. Thanks a lot, for everything you’ve gone through for me.”

“O-of course!”

Severa lets go of her, then Kjelle, with a slightly more uncomfortable face, says

“Soo, should we go back to din…”

“I’ve found you!”

Lucina steps around a tent and approaches the three, all of whom tense up like rabbits hearing a hawk’s cry, with Severa backing up and reflexively blurting out

“Oh gods, how much did you hear?”

“Hear of what? I was just going to find you.”

Kjelle, Noire, and Severa all feel a wave of tension leap off of them like said rabbits on a stiff trampoline, and Severa lets out a massive sigh. Noire blurts out

“We’re fine though, but, uh, thanks!”

“Very good, I’m glad you’ve cleared that up. You two are free to return to dinner, but Severa was supposed to be bedridden. Also, Kjelle, is everything all right? I know you were good friends with Severa before this.”

Kjelle opens her mouth, but Severa responds first, clearly articulating

“Noire and I aren’t dating.”

Lucina seems a tad taken aback, almost letting out a weird grunt, but composes herself, saying

“Kjelle said… Well, whatever. Ok then, do you know where Brady is?”

“I just sent him out to stall Walhart a little, I guess I could go back and tell him to stop.”

Suddenly, a voice booms out, someone else having arrived on the scene.

“That won’t be necessary. He’s right here.”

Walhart bodily throws Brady past Severa, and his body lands with a *Whump* on the ground. Brady yells out a

“Hey! Ow! We’re supposed to be allies!”

Walhart, clearly intent on governing this situation, slams Wolf Berg on the ground in front of him. He glares directly at Severa, who returns his gaze, and begins declaring a few statements

“You, foul manipulator, have demolished the honour of Noire, directly after a battle in which she took many a blow for her comrades, even forcing her to stay confined in the medical tent. She is many times the warrior you will ever be. Not only that, but you manipulated an innocent child to prevent me from exacting justice. You are reprehensible.”

“I’m almost your height, grandpa!”

Walhart ignores the comment from Brady, and awaits for Severa’s response. And could Severa give one! She takes but a moment to collect her thoughts, then puts a finger out, opens her mouth, and Kjelle says

“Let me have this one, Lucina.”

“As you wish.”

Severa glances over to Kjelle and Lucina, and changes to a casual pose, extremely glad that both girls are chomping at the bit to defend her. First, Kjelle snatches Wolf Berg from Walhart, earning a gasp from him, Noire, and Brady, then hands it to Lucina. Kjelle gives him an icy glare, and before he can respond, states with intense enunciation

“You don’t know a lick about who you’re claiming to judge. Severa isn’t just an excellent person, and didn’t manipulate anyone, she is hundreds of times the warrior that YOU are! She’s taken spears, axes, and most recently three arrows for people who hated her, insulted her, or berated her, not just her comrades or friends. You have your invincible suit of armour, and massive axe to hide behind, but what are you without that?! Presumptuous, at the very least.”

After her speech, the tension is almost palpable. The five kids stare almost unblinkingly at the stony, impenetrable expression Walhart holds.

Walhart considers both sides. He looks at Lucina for his axe back, and she quickly complies. In his usual contemplative pose again, he clearly jumps through some mental hurdles, then resumes speaking with the utmost confidence

“Kjelle, you have nothing but good points. I concede that you are correct. I jumped to an unsavory conclusion about Severa without knowing the full story. On the other hand, I personally have not seen any of these professed good qualities of Severa’s. I trust you enough to let it stand at that, but do believe that I will be watching your friend very closely.”

With that, Walhart turns around and steps away, calmly, militaristically, and with a lot more pride than necessary. The five kids sigh, and Kjelle specifically slumps down and lets tears run down her face. Noire extends a hand to Brady, who eagerly accepts it while commenting on the situation

“What an asshole! Who does ‘e think he is!”

“I know, as if he’s perfect! What right does he have to judge me?!”

“Oh gooods… I looked up to him, too. He knows so much about weapons, tactics, armour…”

Kjelle looks over to Lucina, saying

“Thanks for supporting me.”

“Of course. Walhart did have absolutely no right to say those things to Severa. I should tell father and get him reprimanded.”

“Not just reprimanded, kicked. Out!”

“Yeah, tell ‘em!”

Lucina spins around abruptly, easily recalling her original mission, and harshly snaps at Brady

“Speaking of reprimanding, Brady, who was supposed to keep an eye on Severa, and keep her in the medical tent?”

“Urk…”

”Well, that person, whoever they were, is allowed to take the night watch as well. And by allowed, I think you know what I mean.” she says, giving Brady a winning smile, and the handle of Falchion a jostle. She continues

“Take Severa back to the medical tent, and I’ll see if I can scrape up some food for you from your pot pie after I finish eating it. Kjelle, Noire, would you like to help me with that?”

“It’d be my pleasure.”

“Um, if it’d be ok… Brady?”

Brady bares his teeth, but accepts the punishment with dignity. He says, slowly

“Suuure.”

Severa bursts out laughing, then collapses backward. Her every limb burned with agony, muscles and veins trying to knit themselves back together after such horrible trauma, and a long day’s worth of stress to exacerbate those aches. She keeps laughing, but gradually stops as Brady picks her up. He sighs at her, saying

“Oh, and now you’re forcin’ me to carry you? EVERYONE’s out to get me.”

Recalling the events of the past two days, the irony explodes through Severa as a raucous laughter. She semi-bitterly says

“YOU think everyone’s after you?! HA! I have had, without exception, the WORST two days, like EVER! I mean, how many times did you get stabbed? None? Huh, I guess the risen weren’t out to get you… And Say’ri didn’t yell at you… either…Yawn…”

Brady’s red as a cooked salmon, but refuses to admit defeat for now, especially as a good way to keep Severa awake to get some food into her before she… Oh, whoops, he let her go to sleep while holding the guiltiest expression of his life. Dammit! Now she’ll think he’s a right ninny!

 

 


	3. Chapter 2

*Grrrwwl*

“Ugh… Stomach… hurts…”

Up bright and early at four in the morning, Severa takes stock of herself. Her limbs don’t feel like they’re on fire anymore, and her guilt was slightly assuaded. It’s a good day already! Ha! She sits up, with no trouble, and looks around the darkened medical tent. Brady, who was supposed to keep watch throughout the entire night, with no food, and no company, had fallen asleep on one of the cots. Well, as Severa got up and got dressed, she looked at his position a bit more, his torso was on the cot, but the rest of him wasn’t. Giving a slight giggle, she walked out the front flap of the medical tent. Her first stop would have to be her own tent so she could get some new clothes, then a bath in the river. She was really, really hungry, but she also hadn’t put on any makeup for an entire day! Wishing she had one of Gerome’s masks, she rushes to her tent.

 

\--

 

Just contemplating everything that happened yesterday was exhausting, especially Kjelle. Did she seriously expect Severa to not notice how uncomfortable she was with watching Severa showing so much affection for another girl? Or how enthused she looked once Severa mentioned that she was gay? Kjelle’s obviously gay for her. So why is she so reluctant to share her tent?

Then her stomach growls again. Severa is meandering around towards the mess tent, so she glares angrily at her uncooperative digestive system. She thanks the gods that Frederick seems to be still asleep, and the inviting looking tent is totally unguarded. With a tiny cackle, she pushes aside the nearest flap to the expansive tent. The inside is neat and orderly, with every chair positioned perfectly, and every table absolutely clean. Oh no, Frederick must be awake! He’d surely understand that she hasn’t eaten in almost a day, though, so she proceeds through to the kitchen unabated.  
There are no remains of what meal was made here. This is almost too obsessive, even for Frederick. Every surface is spotless, every ingredient put in exactly the right spot, except for… two pie tins? One tin was facing up, the other down, so it perfectly covered the bottom one. Who would… maybe it’s to keep the bottom one free of flies? Severa approaches the tins and touches the bottom one, immediately recoiling from the heat. Someone is MAKING a pie! Who would be up this early just to cook something for themselves? Severa puts on a slight pout as she looks at the tins, and prepares to search elsewhere for food, when she hears

“Oh, good to see you, dear. I made a pot pie for you using last night’s recipe. Wouldn’t want you to miss out.”

which instantly turns her face as red as Cordelia’s hair. Of course the denial-ridden Severa would try to forget about her lovely as hell mother, and indignantly barks back, without turning around

“I could’ve gotten some food myself!”

“But now that you have food, why not sit down and chat?”

With the other girls, this would be easy. Just a few insults and clever remarks, changing topic every nanosecond, and the evening’s over. Cordelia always either takes it as a compliment, makes her feel guilty, or makes sure to tease out some crucial information! She’s slyer than an owl strapped to a fox, and four times as clever. But Severa is really hungry.

“Fiiine. But don’t say I ever wanted to talk to you!”

“Of course you don’t.”

They sit down at one of the tables, directly across from each other, but it’s clear that Cordelia has more on her mind than just getting her daughter to open up to her. Even from across the table, worry is etched into her brow as Severa begins devouring the frankly embarrassingly delicious pot pie. She relaxes a bit, the home cooked meal doing wonders for her stomach. Cordelia easily slips into what she wanted to talk about, her tone calm and level

“I understand you’ve been having some trouble around camp.”

“You can say that again.”

“Especially when Frederick came up to ask me to discipline you. Apparently you were distracted during a training session, and he wanted me to deal with it. Citing your ‘prickly’ nature as to why he didn’t want to do it himself.”

Cordelia smirked at Severa, but tore on without a pause, and a more grim expression

“Then, of course, you saw Walhart’s anger firsthand.”

“Yeah, what was that all about?! He jumped from disliking my mannerisms, to holding an axe at my face!”

Cordelia was proud of her daughter. Severa could sometimes destroy entire armies on foot, whipping from opponent to opponent like a gale-force wind. It was just this that Cordelia wished to speak of, and did so as she let out a tiny smile at Severa’s fearlessness towards such an intimidating and powerful person

“Well, do remember that you destroyed most of his, and his boyfriend’s armies, by yourself.”

“Seriously. He’s still upset about that.”

Severa is quite amused at this. She quickly connects the dots. Two massive war nerds, united by their passion, and brought down by the same rude teenager. Of course they’d get upset.

Cordelia sees her sudden focus, knows that she’s connected the dots, lets out yet another tiny smile, and moves on. She states

“It won’t be hard to convince that pair that you’re better than both of them. Kjelle has actually beaten both of them during practice sessions, and I’ve noticed her putting some moves on you… She’s probably…”

Severa interrupts, but only in a slightly rude manner

“Actually, she’s DEFINITELY gay. I just noticed her cringing whenever I hug Noire.”

“Oh, that poor girl. She really likes you.”

“Yeah! But she’s been really weird about it! I wanted to turn her tent into a clubhouse for all of the girls we came here with, but she wouldn’t let me. Sure, it was eleven o’ clock…”

Cordelia giggles at the situation’s absurdity, but it’s so nice that her daughter has someone she loves already. Cordelia herself never had a straightforward love life, so she’s glad that Severa at least managed to avoid tragic love triangle drama. The flawless pegasus knight makes an amused face at Severa to drive home her last point, clearly, levelly expressing to her daughter

“So, why don’t you try to prioritize? You’ve got plenty on your plate already, with Walhart breathing down your back, you could always deal with that fir…”

Cordelia didn’t trust her! She just let this meeting go on to micromanage Severa’s problems! She couldn’t continue, and Cordelia is suddenly interrupted by an upset shout

“No! I can handle this. Besides, Kjelle calmed Walhart down slightly, and I’m, like, this close to getting everyone to go along with my plan. I’ve already got Kjelle, Noire, Lucina, and myself, so I HAVE this.”

Severa couldn’t open up to Cordelia yet, this is way too stressful. Besides, she’s handled worse before. Like mom’s death. How did she know that this awesome person wouldn’t up and disappear like she did before? She stands up, and briskly speaks to her beloved mom

“Thanks for the pot pie. I’ll be going now, I’m sure that Frederick is handing out the assignment slips already, wouldn’t want to miss yours, Cordelia.”

The last word is spiced with an extra tinge of bitterness. Cordelia is hurt, but outwardly smiles, saying

“No problem, dear. It was a joy. And if you ever want to talk again…”

but Severa is already out the tent flap, completely gone. Cordelia knows that she hasn’t lost Severa forever, but the impersonal tone and bitter demeanor stings. She looks at the pot pie, and realized that Severa hadn’t quite finished it. Cordelia giggles a bit, then goes to return Severa’s assignment slip to Frederick.

 

\--

 

“CYNTHIA!! We can talk, AND spar!”

“Sure, but I don’t wanna!”

“Gods, you are sooOOF!”

Severa’s sarcastic hair flip is interrupted by a smack from the side with a practice lance. Cynthia has always been immensely talented with the lance, and Severa purposefully didn’t practice that same weapon to avoid comparison with her mother. So, naturally, she was being demolished in this duel. That didn’t mean she couldn’t still try to beat that smug heroine at her own game!

Severa lunged up using her practice lance, then backflipped using it as a pole-vault pole to avoid another wide swing from Cynthia. She took up a long-range defensive stance, wide posture, spear at the ready, and hits back a downward smash from Cynthia. Cynthia lets go of her lance, and grabs it near the spearhead to take advantage of Severa leaving herself open with her wide stance, and tackles her to the ground, spearhead at her throat. Cynthia triumphantly leaps to her feet and shouts

“I win! Heroes will always triumph!”

“That was just a fluke! You used the spear like a sword, how could I be prepared for that?!”

Cynthia sticks her tongue out at Severa, and mocks the grounded mercenary

“You’re just upset that I dished out the perfect ironic justice!”

Has Owain been messing with her head again…? With a confused face, Severa comments harshly

“What are you on about? Also, I don’t think you’re using that correctly.”

“Yeah I am! It’s ironic, ‘cause you like swords, and I used my lance like it was a sword! Now, come on, we can go at least four more rounds if you let me end them that easily.”

“Grr, you aren’t ending anything easily, lady!”

Severa leaps back up to her feet, fire renewed in her belly. Why can’t this girl listen, though?! She’s always so distract… Severa barely ducks under a mighty swing, but recovers and manages to jab Cynthia in the ribs. She shouts at Cynthia

“Ha! Now, could you SERIOUSLY consider…”

“Nope! Can’t even hear you, I’m too dead!”

“Dead, huh…”

With a wistful look in her eye, which easily creeps out Cynthia, Severa stares off into the middle distance and remembers that they’re both on trapping duty today. Just one extra trap shouldn’t be noticed by anyone, especially Cynthia.

 

\--

 

Still recovering from her practice bruises, Severa eases her way towards the mess tent. Why, after every training session, did she resemble an apple after Sumia had her way with it seven or eight times? Cynthia and Lucina were both waaay too good, but at least she didn’t get yelled at by Frederick this time. She shuffles to the mess tent for lunch, blending into the rest of the crowd in their hurry to get fed. She was frustrated beyond belief, who could even stand Cynthia, she refused to listen to even the slightest of her pleas. With an unattractive scowl on her face, she scans the wide tent, spotting Nah next to her mom and Tiki. Phew, she wouldn’t have to interact with Cynthia anymore, which was what she was fearing the most. Cynthia had been hanging around Nah an awful lot recently, so the luck involved was staggering.

Severa sneaks over to sit directly across from Nah, eschewing food for a reserved spot. Severa gives a sly smile, trying to make it obvious that she’s up to something. Nah gives her a suspicious look, but has always been ok with entertaining some of her less ridiculous ideas. Tiki and Nowi give the girls amused sidelong glances, and Nowi whispers something in her ear, both manaketes blushing as a result. Severa’s a bit curious, but starts talking in her usual uneven, anxious tones

“So, Nah, care to join Kjelle, Lucina, Noire, and myself for a little chat? I’ll tell you the when and where later.”

Rather excitably and quickly, Nah says

“Will Cynthia be there?”

Slightly flustered by her enthusiasm, Severa responds

“Um, I’ll need to ask her first, but probably?”

“Then I’ll be there! I’ll have something to tell you, too.” Nah gives her a wide smile, then concentrates on her food, shovelling it into her mouth at a disquieting pace. Nowi gives her a disappointed look, but Tiki just smiles. Severa is feeling increasingly put off at this weird display. She makes a face at Nah, then sarcastically snips at her

“Thanks, I’d love to see you, and your two extremely communicative friends there. You really don’t look like you’re hiding anything.”

The three manakete just smile.

 

\--

 

The woods in southern Chon’sin are verdant and beautiful, if a bit sparse and spread out. Unfortunately, due to the higher temperatures, and large, open areas, wild boars are very common. And very difficult to catch! They pretty much exclusively build the traps on site, but thankfully, Cynthia and Severa are just checking on the traps today, they don’t have to build another one. They aren’t really doing it together, though. Cynthia is trying to irritate Severa by running ahead and avoiding her at all costs, not an easy task for a pegasus knight to do in an open field against the best sprinter in camp. Still, even if she can’t outrun a rabbit on steroids, Cynthia’s managed to tire Severa out, at the very least. It doesn’t hurt that Severa is the one carrying the first boar they caught.

Severa gave up shouting at Cynthia a while ago, but knows that Cynthia got the hint. Cynthia would go north, and look for the two hog traps there, Severa would go east to the last three traps, then they would rendezvous at the last trap of Severa’s. Giving Severa ample time to set up a trap for Cynthia!

This boar was seriously heavy, though. What in the world did these ugly things even eat, rocks? At least it was dead, live boars are even tougher than revenants. Ha! That’s not saying much. Hehehe, this plan was going to be a lot of fun, though. Cynthia hadn’t noticed the five pounds of rope hastily shoved into Severa’s knapsack, and she was so oblivious that she wouldn’t even need a decent cover before leading her into it.

 

\--

 

“Just a bit further, Cynthia, it’s just through those trees.”

“Why didn’t you just carry this boar, Severa? I already have one!”

“Because I already have THREE! Seriously, are you trying to shove all of the work onto me?”

“Hey, you never said you had three of them! That’s impressive! Let me see!”

Cynthia was still going in the right direction, so Severa didn’t really care, but what was so impressive about carrying three boars at once? Maybe she’ll force Cynthia to carry the four which actually exist so she can be impressed with herself. Cynthia shouts, confusion corrupting her usual air-headed tones,

“Hey, there’s no boar here!”

THWIP

“Gotcha!”

“SEVERA! This isn’t funny!”

Cynthia’s distressed face looked even funnier upside-down. The rope wrapped around her legs perfectly suspended her in the middle of the grove of trees. It was almost poetic, how perfectly it all went together. She needed to rub it in before forcing Cynthia to listen to her prepared speech. She snarks

“Usually you’re high and mighty, but this time you’re just high!”

“You really ARE a villain!”

“Yeah, sorry, but I REALLY needed to talk to you, and you are just an expert at making things difficult.”

“Fine! The good heroes always listen to your evil monologues, right before they break free in the nick of time!”

“Ugh, I’m not evil! Whatever! So, what I wanted to talk about is simple enough that even you should be able to comprehend it. Kjelle, Lucina, Noire, Myself, and Nah are going to meet up and, just, like, hang out and stuff. Are you in?”

“No, villain, I’m out!”

A bit of shock, but… Cynthia is writhing with her legs tied? Is she… trying to do curl-ups? A bit of worry goes through her mind, and she blurts out

“Cynthia, are you ok? You…”

“Urgh, um…”

Oh. She’s that dense. Severa says with a sigh on her lips

“Cynthia, you’re supposed to already be out of the villain’s trap once you say that.”

That almost would’ve been dramatic, too, if she was a decent escape artist. Cynthia was embarrassed, and hanging out with everyone, especially Nah, did sound like fun, but she still had a chance to make it dramatic if she escaped as… Severa lets her to the ground, then unties her. Cynthia indignantly expresses to Severa, fake rage in her eyes

“I didn’t need help! I…”

“Need some practice.”

Severa’s interruption is sweetened with a smile at her endearing enthusiasm. It’s good to know that someone was never bothered. But Cynthia never gave Severa a straight answer, so she indignantly blurts out

“But seriously, what did you think?”

“Yeah, that sounds like fun!”

A wave of relief soaks through Severa, and she reviews her progress in her head. Everyone except Kjelle. She’ll come around quickly, though. Severa smiles slightly into the stiff breeze and sunny sky. It is kinda of odd how Nah reacted to Cynthia, but Nah did say that she had something to say, so maybe they’ll turn out to be dating or something like that. Ha, with how they used to fight, that’d be hilarious.

Cynthia works her foot into the ground, waiting for Severa to say something, but she just keeps staring into the middle distance, a weird grin growing up her face. With her being distracted, though, maybe Cynthia could just skedaddle without taking any of the boars… They are really heavy, and Severa deserved some proper heroic punishment. She grins, then takes off sprinting through the trees. Severa takes notice and shouts:

“HEY! Come back here!”

and begins running too, but needn’t have bothered, Cynthia stumbles over the boar she dropped when she was flung up into the air. Severa catches up, then matronly stares down at the red-faced ‘hero’. Cynthia sheepishly giggles, then says

“I guess being suspended in the air really did a number to my legs! So cruel of you!”

Whatever. So Cynthia’s not being cooperative, and in other news, the sun still shines. It might have been a tad mean to string her up like that, too. Severa harshly responds, plenty of bite in her voice

“Fine! Just carry one, see that I care. Just don’t expect any favors after this!”

“Hehe, thanks a lot, Severa! Hanging out will be a lot of fun, too.”

Severa thinks up a proper, snarky response as she hefts three boars on her back and shoulders, then gathers up her rope. Cynthia is just impressed with her physique. No wonder Kjelle is so enamored with her. She nearly screeches with excitement

“Race you back to camp!”

“No. You’re going to give me a proper, heroic account of the last battle. I still have no idea what happened.”

“Oooh, Owain and I spent an hour getting this ready! Alright, so first, we stared into the distance, ready for the risen to crest the horizon, blood boiling in our veins. Our weapons were extensions of our limbs as we stood in perfect, unalterable formation…”

Severa sighed. One way to get information, a much more boring way to pass time. Why didn’t she just ask Nah instead?

 

\--

 

The porkchops were magnificently prepared, and Severa and Cynthia were both lauded with compliments to their belicious catches, even when Laurent pointed out that the traps were of Donnels design. Severa tried to leech the sarcasm from her tone as she said

“Yeah, Donnel definitely deserves more praise, especially with the cunning places he put the traps. Really led them into a corner.”

Donnel is embarrassed at the attention, but immune to the extreme amount of hate directed towards Severa. He responding sheepishly with

“Aw shucks, Severa, ya don’t need to say that. We all saw you carryin’ THREE ‘o them hogs on your back. You’re one of the best workers here!”

His positive response took Lon’qu and Maribelle off guard. They were all but certain she was being sarcastic. Walhart remained focused, staring down the incredibly tough swordswoman even more than usual. She had to drop her guard eventually. When she did, he’d be there. Cordelia would make sure he wasn’t, she was focussed on covering for her if necessary, not that it would be.

Severa responded simply and easily to Donnel’s compliment, clearly stating over the crowd’s excitement, but with a bit of a bite to her words

“Well, whoever’s to blame, our cooks will make it delicious, so let’s go eat!”

A cheer rises up from the impatient crowd, and they all surge into the ready mess hall.

 

\--

 

It’s a struggle to find a spot near Kjelle, definitely not because the kids split into two tables, and she accidentally sat near the one where Morgan was actively hitting on Nah, bringing her this really cool flower, and Inigo, just by insulting him to a deplorable degree.

“Nah, really, it was no trouble to get this flower.”

“Sure, sure, you’ll have to tell me about all the no trouble you went to one of these days.”

Morgan smiled and tried to switch topics quickly, centering their focus on Inigo

“So, Inigo, how was inviting that maiden to tea? Looks like you really made some progress with the bruises on your face.”

Morgan gives him an intense, winning smile, and Inigo sheepishly tries to respond, clearly distraught by the microscope-like examination

“Well, it’s all p-part of the game of love and war!”

“Yeah, it really has a lot to do with war, doesn’t it?”

“Hehe…”

Inigo tries to shift gears, staring at Severa, regrettably sitting right next to him. She externally sighs as he looks over to her and sputters out

“So Severa how’s your love life going?”

Severa blushes, gets up, and says

“FINE. JUST. DANDY.”

as she leaves. Inigo, Morgan, and Nah all stare at her retreating form, but only Morgan figures out what’s wrong. They try to cover for her, saying, with exaggerated malice,

“INIGO! You’ve really stepped up your game at driving away ladies. I always thought that you had to say more than one sentence, but you’re getting really concise now!”

Nah joins in, happy to let the notorious flirt boil in his misdeeds, but not above ripping on Severa, too

“Yeah, she’s such a happy and carefree person usually, I can’t imagine what could drive her away.”

Inigo responds, sweat starting in rivulets down his face

“Wait, I don’t think that was all me…”

He was clearly going to figure it out eventually, but Morgan knew how to play their cards

“Oh, you don’t think so? Maybe we should talk about that barmaid, or maybe that blacksmith’s apprentice you talked to for a similar amount of time…”

 

\--

 

Severa finally sat down next to Kjelle, her face with tinges of red before even talking with her. A sigh escapes from her lips, and she begins eavesdropping on a conversation between Kjelle and Panne. Panne stares directly at Kjelle as she says

“You forced my son to train, practice, and nearly break himself.”

The tension is palpable. Laurent and Gerome, who were enjoying a nice conversation, stare at the conversants. Kjelle doesn’t even flinch as she responds

“So I did. He needed the training.”

There’s a short pause. Panne sits back in her chair, and a gasp arises from the crowd behind her. Both fighters start in that direction, but just as quickly return to staring at each other. Panne speaks intensely back at Kjelle

“Yes. Continue to do so, please.”

“Of course, miss.”

Panne leaves, but the faces of some of the surrounding shepherds are obviously disappointed that there wasn’t some sort of fight. One member isn’t just disappointed, and as Kjelle turns her head towards Yarne at the end of the table, he hides behind Laurent, hoping his floppy hat will save the last taguel. Once she makes eye contact, Kjelle grins from ear to ear, then resumes eating. Severa’s been smirking throughout the entire exchange, Kjelle hasn’t changed a bit. Inviting the entire camp to training sessions through strategic beatings… No wonder she has the respect of Priam and Walhart. She does have a softer side, though, and what better way to take advantage of it than a strategic mocking of her own? Severa leaves the smirk on her face, then evilly states to Kjelle

“Wow, if I thought Inigo was good at chasing away girls, you’re just as good at chasing away boys. Or is that intentional?”

“Gah! When did…”

Kjelle didn’t even notice her at first, but realizing the words that just came out of Severa’s mouth, she’s mortified beyond belief. Severa’s figured her out. Kjelle hasn’t even come out to her parents yet, and Severa’s just blurting out stuff in front of everyone? Kjelle harshly responds to Severa, halfway under her breath,

“Severa, we can’t talk about that here. Just, pretend to be really into swords for one meal, please.”

Only after the words have left her mouth does Kjelle regret the accidental innuendo. At least only Ricken is still paying attention, and that’s mostly because his wife is doing a full analysis on Sumia’s flower fortunes, prompting Cordelia and Sumia to try change the topic extremely awkwardly. Kjelle’s face turns redder than the average tomato, and she turns to glance up and down the other side of the tent as Severa leans over to whisper in her ear, intensely, and as seductively as the mercenary’s high pitch will allow,

“We can talk about it in your tent, and if I wanted to be into “swords”, would I be blushing right now?”

Kjelle’s taken aback. No mocking tones, just honesty. Severa really wanted this, and so does Kjelle. She turns to face the smile on the blushing mercenary’s face, and meets it with a smile of her own. Severa is so pretty when she smiles, the candlelight dappling off her her lips and eyes, those smooth, hard pearly whites contrasting perfectly with her soft, textured cheeks. It looks so inviting, so romantic, it’s all Kjelle can do to not kiss her right then and there. She breezily states

“Yeah… that’d be nice…”

Severa takes a single sidelong glance back towards Ricken’s table, and noticing that he’s not the only voyuer anymore. Her mom and Sumia are staring intently at Kjelle and Severa’s extremely close faces while simultaneously trying to distract Miriel. Embarrassment rushes through Severa, and she suddenly backs up, not even having noticed their proximity. She tries to remedy the situation by saying something, and blurts out

“So, swords, yeah, how often do you get to use them?”

“I actually have gone through the myrmidon class line, so I’m fairly experienced if I do say so myself.”

The atmosphere becomes quite casual again, and Severa knows for sure she can make fun of Kjelle now. Her MOM was staring at her, though? Maybe she should get some choice words for everyone in this tent. She simmers back down as she comments at Kjelle

“Really. The experience TOTALLY shone through when you picked that sword up from the wrong end.”

Kjelle tries to respond to Severa’s dismissive smirk, but she interrupts Kjelle, saying

“So I really could bring all the girls into your tent?”

Kjelle sighs, and weighs the options. Having everyone in her tent wouldn’t be bad, it’d be fun to talk with everyone, and she’d probably be able to convince Severa to stay afterwards. Why can’t it JUST be her and Severa like it used to be, though? All the makeup, the fake re-training, it all happened there. She loves spending time with Severa, and realizes that she would want to no matter who else is in the vicinity. Still, maybe she could convince Lucina that it’s a bad idea, without telling Severa. One more day doesn’t sound unreasonable, and if that doesn’t work out, well, they’ll have an hour of talking with friends before anything fun happens. Kjelle nearly smiles at her scheme, but manages to control herself enough to only smirk a little when curtly replying to Severa

“Yeah, we’ll do it tomorrow night, so I can set up my tent.”

“Fiiine, but don’t say I didn’t warn you if you want an extra day with us later!”

“Oh, right, exactly WHO is showing up at eleven?”

“Uh, Noire, Cynthia, Lucina, Myself, and Nah. Have I really turned you into such a lady that you need to know who to prepare the tea for?”

Severa smirked at her again, but not just at her witticisms. Her plan was actually going to work. Everyone was really going to be there in just one day. Sure, she saw Kjelle’s smirk, so she’s probably got something up her sleeve, but if Severa can’t deal with Kjelle, there’s very little she could deal with.

Kjelle’s blush was terribly obvious, but right now, only Severa mattered. Kjelle attempted to save what little dignity she had left by changing the subject back to swords. Ones they’re actually going to use, this time. She spits out

“Well, getting back to the Myrmidon class tree…”

“Haha! Someone just doesn’t want to admit she’s gone soft!”

“Har! As if I’d be soft to you!”

“You’ll be as soft as these mashed potatoes if you don’t eat something.”

“Ah, so clumpy, hard, and over seasoned?”

And just like that, they began arguing and having fun together again. Tomorrow’s machinations could wait, they have the rest of dinner to enjoy. Together.


	4. Chapter 3

Severa woke up that morning feeling fantastic. The sun was shining in a less than eye-searing manner, the birds weren’t being as annoying with their chirping as usual, and her hair wasn’t totally messed up. She applies her makeup in record time, determined to make certain that Kjelle couldn’t weasel out of this. With each dab of blush she applied in front of her vanity, she gradually grew in confidence. She might have terribly pale skin, but a bit of blush could cover that up, the bags under her eyes could be disguised under some eyeshadow, and even her stubby little eyelashes could look decent with a great mascara. It was expensive, but even Kjelle can’t resist her looks once she’s done.

Severa practically leaps out her tent flap, and starts running around to check off the people on her list. Noire’s first, and should probably be checked up on anyway, the bumbling archer could probably get herself tied up in the washing up bucket without supervision.

 

\--

 

“S-severa?”

“Ugh. I’m not even going to ask how you managed to tie yourself up in your own sheets.”

“S-sorry, there was a bug, and it was crawling over there, and…”

Severa lets out a long sigh as she steps over to Noire’s tangled bedroll and begins gently easing her out of it, saying

“Well, whatever. So, we’re all meeting up at Kjelle’s tent after lights out tonight. Try not to poison yourself in the meantime.”

“I’ll try…”

Noire’s downcast expression tugged at Severa’s heartstrings, and she gave the volatile archer a comforting grin as she tugged apart the last knot. Severa states, a tad sheepishly

“Well, seriously, you’ll do fine. Just show up eventually, I bet that everyone will be late anyway.”

“Ha…”

Noire’s slight smile is all Severa needs to tell her she can leave.

 

\--

 

Where could Lucina possibly have gotten off to at this hour?! She’s not in the strategy tent with Robin and her father, she’s not training with Kjelle (who Severa TOTALLY wasn’t trying to avoid), and she’s definitely not still sleeping in her tent. Frustrated, Severa stands right in the middle of camp, with a twisted snarl on her face as she stares down the rows of tents. The rest of the camp is finally waking up, but Lucina still isn’t around. Severa notices Stahl giving her a worried look, and Lissa snarl back at her playfully, but tries to look unconcerned. Nah’s probably still exercising her manakete penchant for oversleeping, but Cynthia’s probably hopping around camp somewhere even as she…

“Hey Severa! Why the longer-than-usual face?”

Turning around with a start, Severa faces Cynthia with an expression merely of loathing, rather than confusion. She dryly states

“Oh, you. By the way, come to Kjelle’s tent tonight. Also, have you see…”

“Wait, we’re meeting up TODAY? I was just running around talking to everyone else, it was fun! Noire is really good at throwing knives when she gets upset, and Lucina is always a hoot!”

Severa lets out a long sigh. In just the ten hours that she told her, Cynthia’s already managed to be a complete idiot. Severa exasperatedly states

“Do you EVER run out of ways to embarrass yourself? Oh wait, I already know the answer. Could you make yourself useful and tell me where Lucina is? And don’t forget to show up!”

“Wow, with your glare, insults, and demeanor, someone might think that you don’t like me!”

Cynthia gives Severa a massive smile, then suddenly leaps over and wraps her arms around the testy mercenary’s tiny waist, squeezing the breath out of her. Severa’s face turns beet red as she flails her arms trying to get Cynthia off, then yells

“AGH! Cynthia!”

“Ehehe!”

Cynthia jumps away and sprints off, leaving a bewildered Severa, and an amused crowd. Only the most attentive shepherds saw exactly what happened, such as Frederick’s stern glance from across the campfire, Lon’qu and Yen’fay’s obvious bafflement, Robin’s tiny but highly notable grin, and her MOM’s beaming face barely concealed behind a single hand. Severa hides her face with her own hands and spits out, exhaustedly, to no one in particular,

“What are YOU looking at?!”

Then sprints off to a hopefully separate part of the camp.

 

\--

 

After running for only a short while, Severa stops, and realizes that she’s back near the sleeping tents. Nah better not be awake yet. The rebellious pegasus knight stalks through the neat rows, and finds the tent she’s looking for, an impeccably put together, extremely neat, and highly mature portable canvas shelter; which just happens to have a bunch of dragon scales scattered around it. Ever since Robin found a renewable source of cheap dragonstones, Cynthia has been bugging Nah almost non-stop to pose for her. They do seem to spend a lot of time together, but Severa doesn’t want to put two and two together just yet.

Severa throws open the entrance to the tent to reveal the tiny girl underneath her bedroll, fast asleep. Maybe it’d be a bit rude to wake her up, but she could probably do it gentler than Frederick, at least. Severa kneels down next to Nah, and racks her brain for the best approach. A bucket of water would be hilarious, but jarring, a big shove would be a great way to freak her out, then get bitten… Maybe just a gentle shake. Risen hardly ever did that in the future, there’s no way she could confuse that for something hostile. Severa grabs her shoulder and gently shakes, brusquely saying

“Hey Nah! Get up!”’

Nah responds not by getting up, but with a low murmur

“Just a few more minutes, Cynthia…”

Severa starts, jumping back a bit. This was totally normal. Girls sleeping with each other, it’s like a casual sleepover. It doesn’t mean ANYTHING. Of course it does, they’re totally an item now. Severa tries to stifle her giggle, but fails miserably, her higher pitch waking Nah up with her own start, and a slight yelp

“Huh?! Severa! Uhm, you didn’t hear that, did you?!”

“Oh, yeah, I didn’t hear the words which came, clearly, from your mouth half a second ago.”

With a smirk and a giggle, Severa easily shifts the shade of Nah’s mortified face several degrees pinkwards. She snaps out of it, though, and snippily states her next order of business

“I didn’t come here just to humiliate you, your girlfriend is doing an excellent job of that, but also to tell you to go to Kjelle’s tent after lights out tonight. On the subject of humiliating you, though, what position doe...”

“OUT! LEAVE!”

“Hahaha!”

“I’m reaching for my dragonstone!”

“Oooh, so that’s how you…”

“GRAAAAH!”

Severa sprints away from the scaly claw of the recently transformed manakete, hellfire raining down behind her, mostly in the figurative sense.

 

\--

 

Robin made a minor slip up on the morning training schedule, and paired everyone up with their optimal matches, except for two. Severa (of course she’d be forgotten about, Robin probably expected her to perfectly match herself with someone, like Cordelia would.), and Vaike (hey, since when would anyone be a bad match for the Vaike? In fact, he could probably beat everyone in this army! All at once!). Sure, their attitudes were a bad match, as were their weapons, but the vast gap in skill was really what Robin was most worried about. The tactician took both of them aside before their spar, and states calmly

“Hey, you two have been working really hard lately, you don’t have to spar with anyone today if you don’t want to.”

Severa notices a slight nervous tic as Robin looks over at Vaike, and this whole conversation rings a bit hollow. She stares him down, leaning slightly to get a better view as Vaike launches into an indignant speech

“Yer sayin’ I get no one to show the Vaike’s mightiness to?! You gotta let me spar with someone!”

“Sorry, that’s just how the chips fall. You could take your aggression out on that tree stump over there.”

Robin could see Severa’s intense gaze. She was listening in on the slightest inflection of the tactician’s words, and seemed to be approaching a conclusion. Robin shifted a little, which apparently set Severa off as she states an obviously rehearsed line

“Wow, that is the lamest excuse I’ve ever heard, Robin. Why didn’t you just say that you thought we were a bad match?”

Robin flinches, then holds that pose, glaring daggers at Severa, who just smiles sweetly back, leaning aggressively. Both of them know exactly how much Severa can destroy the forgetful fighter, but only one is OK with it happening. Vaike responds eagerly, completely oblivious to the tension sparking through the air

“Well, that’s just mean! The Vaike would never hurt one of ‘is friends, and Severa’s a neat part of the shepherds. This is a fight that’s MEANT to happen!”

Vaike shifts to his fighting stance, legs outstretched, axe handy, and posture low. Severa opens her mouth to snark back, but Robin desperately tries to stop this match, speaking in short, furious bursts

“Don’t you want to know WHY I know you’re a bad match? Yo…”

but gets interrupted

“Robin, you’re just insulting our skills. This fight is meant to happen.”

Severa’s sarcasm is aimed squarely at Robin, and goes straight over Vaike’s head, who continues

“Yeah! There’s a lady who knows what I’m talkin’ about! Let’s do this!”

Robin glares at Severa fatalistically, quipping back

“Just make sure to visit him in the sick tent at least once.”

 

\--

 

Surveying the lunch tent, Severa finally finds Lucina. It almost seems like the normally transparent and plainspoken princess is avoiding her for some reason. Kjelle is nowhere to be found, either. Swiftly taking the seat directly across from Lucina, Severa examines her slightly uncomfortable expression before speaking

“Hey, Lucina, for that meet-up I was talking about a few days ago, we’re having it in Kjelle’s tent, tonight. Don’t be late!”

Lucina’s confused expression stops Severa from leaving immediately, and Lucina’s words freeze the caustic mercenary in her tracks

“Wait. Kjelle told me exactly the opposite of that. She said that her tent is completely off limits.”

Severa hid her smiling behind her hands, the easy realization sinking in of what Kjelle’s plan had actually been. Wow, the stalwart knight wasn’t called upon for her tactical prowess for a reason. Severa revealed her grin, then easily explained

“Kjelle must’ve been confused, like she is with most things. She told me that it was perfectly fine to use her tent, and besides, I’ve already told everyone else who’ll attend.”

Lucina’s face scrunches up, the gears in her head visibly straining. Kjelle was full of emotion about telling her to not attend, so she glares back at Severa. Besides, Kjelle should have jurisdiction over her own property, no matter how little property she has. She states clearly

“Kjelle was clearly upset about this, you should honour her most recent desires.”

Suddenly, Kjelle appears with a pre-reddened face, and sits down next to Lucina to state

“Well, I wouldn’t say that I was too choked up about this, but yeah, you should keep everyone out of my room.”

Lucina nods, then puts on a more gentle expression before declaring

“Then that’s decided. Severa, you can tell the other girls to not attend, and Kjelle, we can set up a guard to make sure no one gets into your tent.”

Kjelle’s face turns slightly redder, but she retains her stoic face as she says

“You don’t have to pay any attention to it, I can guard my own room.”

“What about when you’re asleep? If your issue is the quality of the guards, I can protect you myself.”

Both Kjelle and Severa blush this time, but Severa more out of anger towards Kjelle. The knight’s sloppily laid plan is swiftly falling apart at the seams, just because she didn’t want to share Severa. It’s still weird to want to take an entire group into someone’s tent, though! Kjelle gapes her mouth open, but can’t think of anything else to say before Severa snaps

“Since Kjelle so CLEARLY doesn’t want anything to do with me, I’ll just leave before she gets the idea that I could appreciate her.”

Severa stands up, and Kjelle tries to reach for the scarlet-faced girl to pull her back, but Severa’s glare stays her hand. Kjelle doesn’t see her own folly just yet, she sees Severa overreacting as per usual, but the knight’s palms are hot and her face is red. Kjelle snaps back at Severa, standing up to look her in the eyes

“No, I just don’t want to share… y…”

Before heat flashes through her body at the thought of what she was about to say. The toughest soldier in the army, paralyzed simply by a pesky few emotions?! She hasn’t said how she feels about the maleficent mercenary yet, and certainly can’t say it in a tent full of the entire rest of the army. At Severa’s blushing, bitter, but hopeful face, she blurts out the first thing that comes to mind

“I mean, you’d have to beat me in a duel for me to take you seriously!”

then immediately regrets it, shoving a hand in front of her mouth. Severa stops looking hopeful, and starts staring deeply into Kjelle’s watery eyes with a vicious snarl.

Severa realizes what’s just happened, and prepares her response. The only way to allow Kjelle to save SOME face would be to actually take her up on the challenge. Over-the-top, that’ll make a proper scene, and once Kjelle’s beaten, there’s no way she could refuse to host the rest of the girls. She switches to a slightly gentler sneer, then says

“Ha! There’s no way an anti-social jerk like you could understand interacting with people beyond a lance tip! I’ll take you up on that offer, if you beat me, it’ll just show how out of touch you are!”

Kjelle’s face finally loses some of its blush as she returns to familiar territory. Severa’s insults and threats are much easier to face than her scheming and excited plotting. Kjelle furiously states, her mannerisms stoic

“You’ll have too many bruises to mock anyone once I’m done with you. Right after lunch, third practice ring from Robin’s tent.”

“I could insult you in my sleep, but once I win, you’ll be getting plenty of practice, AND you’ll let me use your tent.”

Kjelle blushed again, but tried to remain stoic even under Severa’s piercing gaze. The mercenary breaks eye contact first, retreating to a far corner of the tent. Kjelle’s relief flushes through her body, and she sits down, exhaustion rooting her to the chair.

Severa’s made every point she needed to, but takes one good look at the few shepherds who watched the exchange. Robin, Lon’qu, Chrom, Sully, Walhart, Basilio, Priam, Flavia, Gregor, and Vaike only glanced over once the duel was mentioned, her mom was in the corner, staring intently, Noire and Lucina look very confused and kind of worried, Sumia is already picking apart a flower, and most of the other shepherds are lost in their own conversations. With a long sigh, just barely out of Kjelle’s hearing, Severa returns to a lecture in dark magic from Henry and Tharja. This was going to be the most excruciating class promotion she’s ever had.

Kjelle tries to converse with Lucina saying, hesitantly

“So,”

but is interrupted by Lucina’s

“Explain what is going on.” Her intense stare is almost mean before she adds “Please.” and flinches slightly at her unintentionally brusque statement. Kjelle doesn’t respond for a bit, but once she looks at Lucina’s severe expression, she breaks out laughing, then adds

“Har! Just a little duel.”

“I’m glad you’re back to normal again.”

Kjelle just blankly stares at Lucina’s oblivious smile. She really can be dense sometimes. Lucina senses the awkward tension, and glances down while saying

“Um, so, why did you pick the third practice ring from Robin’s tent so specifically?”

“It gives me a massive advantage. See, Severa’s style relies on jumping around, dodging, and generally moving around a lot. To counteract that, I chose an arena with a pile of gravel in the middle. All I have to do is plant my feet in one spot, and she’ll beat herself for me! Hahaha, hehEHE…”

She cuts herself off before she can switch from evil laughing to girly giggling, but this will still be an extremely amusing match. Severa doesn’t stand a chance. Lucina tries to upturn her lips slightly, but doesn’t really get why Kjelle’s laughing. Instead, she merely responds

“You really do think about battle thoroughly, I truly appreciate your presence, especially as a sparring partner. In fact, I’d like to ask you a question about your moves last session…”

Kjelle smiles openly, this was going to be a fun conversation.

 

\--

 

Severa stares directly into Kjelle’s eyes. That smug gaze, those cool mannerisms under pressure, everything was just built to make her hate Kjelle more. Seriously, she picked the ONE practice ring with tons of gravel?! Infuriating doesn’t DESCRIBE it!

She charges Kjelle’s guard, but feints at the last moment, and rolls left around Kjelle. Kjelle lifts her lance into a stabbing position, but without her shield, almost succumbs to a quick slash from a suddenly upright Severa. Jerking back slightly, Kjelle almost slips on the gravel beneath her, but props herself up with her spear, and shoves Severa back with her shield. The mercenary is slightly off balance, but rolls backward to regain it. With a step back, she takes stock of the battle, and decides her next move.

The audience is intent, staring with all their might, but far away from the battle. Not getting a practice sword to the face was the priority here. Walhart and Priam, comment on the form and technique exhibited. Walhart had always been extremely impressed by Kjelle, and was trying to convince Priam that he should take up lances. He said

“Priam, lances grant true might. It is far easier to pierce a knight’s armour with a lance than with a sword. Its strength alone makes it worthwhile.”

“They might be slightly more powerful than swords, but a properly maintained armorslayer can accomplish that same goal, or I could just use axes. I admit that it might be a useful skill to have, but I don’t require their use.”

Walhart gazes up at the sky for a moment, consolidating his argument, then says

“In an extremely tough fight, the blessed lance could be the difference between life and death.”

Priam tilts his head up toward the silver-haired man, and takes the bait, inquiring

“How so?”

“The healing it grants its wielder can be invaluable.” Walhart waits for Priam’s thoughts to go to the soothing sword, then continues “Yes, the soothing sword provides a similar healing effect, but it is much weaker, physically, and can break in just a few hits. The blessed lance has no such weakness.”

Priam nods, resigned to a loss in this argument. He speaks plainly

“You have sold me on their merits, but one problem still remains. I have no classes wherein I can use lances, what would you have me do?”

Walhart turns to face Priam, and states

“I would not have you do anything alone; I could train you in the knight class, or, together, we could create a new class.”

“That would be an interesting challenge indeed. Perhaps we could both meditate on these ideas, and draft up designs for it later.”

Walhart nods, and both of them go back to examining the fight.

Cordelia stands next to Sully, tension sparking through the air. Sully thinks

“They’re both so perfect, and neither of ‘em need to try. At least my daughter and I have to put in the effort, and once she wins, it’ll really show ‘em.”

She tries to snatch a glance of Cordelia, but the perfect pegasus knight saw it coming a mile away, and already had a smile ready. Sully’s face becomes significantly redder, but she responds with a sneer and looks back at the fight. The fence she’s leaning on wobbles as she nervously adjusts herself. Sully knows that this rivalry is dumb, but she can’t just go up and ask Cordelia how she got so good, or she’ll just say something modest like “Oh, I just practice whenever I can.” Bullshit. Sully’s seen her figure out the recipe of a pie from just a single slice, and Cordelia’s tasted twice as good.

Cordelia has no idea why Sully dislikes her. Sure, she’s never really devoted a lot of time to talking to Sully, but it almost seems as if Sully is actively avoiding her. Cordelia couldn’t really complain, though. As long as the cavalier was a credit to the shepherds, it didn’t matter how much she hated Cordelia. This was a great opportunity to break the ice, though, and Cordelia wasn’t about to waste it. She sat upright slightly more on her section of the fence, then said behind her

“Hey Sully, your daughter has excellent lance form. Have you been practicing with her?”

Sully sneered up at Cordelia, but her back was turned, possibly quite purposely. She responded, with a bit of venom in her voice

“Actually, yes, unlike you and Severa. I betcha haven’t even picked up a sword.”

“I actually have used the sword for a few months, but it is true that my daughter and I aren’t as close as you and Kjelle.”

Great, even more evidence of how perfect and modest she is. Sully is about to say something bitingly sarcastic, but Cordelia interrupts with another query

“How did you two get so close, anyway?”

“What, does the genius not know how to interact with her own flesh and blood? I don’t think you need any advice from me, honey.”

The sarcasm in the last word was sticky and caustic, and Sully regrets it instantly when she sees Cordelia tense up. The perched pegasus knight looks terribly uncomfortable, and takes her time in responding. When she does, it’s with a bitter, horribly sad vocalization

“All right. G-good day to you, too.”

Cordelia stiffly walks off, leaving an ashamed and confused Sully in her wake.

 

\--

 

Severa and Kjelle have been battling for almost a quarter of an hour. Few have their insane endurance, and even fewer have their skill. Severa lunges yet again, then feints at the last possible moment, almost goading Kjelle into raising her guard, but Kjelle instead strikes across with her lance, very nearly hitting the agile mercenary. Severa tries to get in close to remove Kjelle’s shield, but Kjelle threatens her at any angle with that pesky lance. Severa is beginning to regret her choice of weapon.

Kjelle stands firm, desperately trying to predict Severa’s moves before she makes them, but it’s not a task for the faint of heart. Every weak point in her guard is abused, and Kjelle can see the mercenary sizing up the shield of hers. What could she possibly be thinking? The knight can counter any direct thrust at her shield with just a poke from her lance, and if Severa tried to dive under, that’d be asking for a world of bruises. She sees Severa stomping out a pattern into the ground, but what could she possibly be doing?

Severa feels that this could be the answer. She keeps her eyes locked on the stalwart knight, but she’ll probably see it coming a mile away. Severa gradually digs a small hole, but then Kjelle charges her, shield upfront, spear outstretched. Perfect. Even if this didn’t work, changing Kjelle’s footing is definitely a step in the right direction. The spot she was using earlier was indented from her solid footsteps. Severa rolls out of the way of Kjelle’s lunge, then puts herself on the opposite side of the tiny pit.

Kjelle made quite the mistake. Moving was probably the worst thing she could’ve done, but now she’s in the middle of the arena, giving Severa all the space she needed for flanking maneuvers. Kjelle just HAD to stop Severa from doing… whatever it was the pit was for… and she’s stalled, at the very least. Severa is being much more aggressive than her comparatively lethargic performance before, striking at anything within range with her sword, forcing Kjelle back a few steps. Kjelle waits for a lunge at her lance, knocking it aside temporarily, then pushes forward with her shield, knocking Severa off balance. The gravel does the rest, tripping Severa to the ground. Kjelle smiles as she pokes her lance toward the ground, but Severa rolls away, and is up on her feet in a moment, and right back in the fray.

Severa spits a rock out of her mouth, and is almost distracted by another pebble falling from her hair, but keeps on with the offensive pressure. Kjelle managed to reason out that shield bash while her guard was down, so Severa focuses her sword on Kjelle’s shield arm, and tries to just dodge the lance. She lets off a salvo of blows, some aimed high, some low, and hops over the token stab from Kjelle, stabbing down at her shield arm. Kjelle backs up instead of taking the blow, and tries to retaliate, but Severa’s already out of the way.

Just a few more steps.

Severa takes a breath, and tries to get a slightly better grip on her sword by wiping off some of the sweat off on her tunic, but that’s soaked with sweat, too, so she just gives Kjelle some time to ready her guard again. Severa ignores the pain gradually moving through her entire body, then lunges towards Kjelle again, trying her guard with a forward strike, but this time, Kjelle’s ready, and stabs exactly where Severa would be for the rapid strike. Severa tries for her right flank, but almost gets jabbed in the stomach. Everywhere she strikes, Kjelle is ready and waiting.

Kjelle remembers Morgan trying to trap people in pitfalls. Sure, it would never work, but they would be excellent at tripping people. Could Severa be trying something similar? Kjelle has to get away from that pit. She tries to move left, but Severa read her face, and now they’re both on the same page about the hole. The blow is easy to block with her shield, but she has to back up for the follow-up strike at her spear arm. Kjelle feebly stabs back, but can’t even get close to Severa’s location. Maybe if she consciously tried to step into the hole, she could get her footing and stay upright. This was no good, at this rate, Severa was going to win. Kjelle plants a foot behind her, and charges at the Mercenary, covering her face with her shield.

Severa saw the charge coming a mile away, so deflects the lance, and tackles Kjelle’s shield, staggering her back a little. Kjelle then sets her shield in the ground for extra balance, kneeling down and stabbing rapidly, forcing Severa to backflip out of the way. The knight seems content to just turtle there, so Severa feints to lower her guard marginally, but it’s not going to work this time. Severa dives for Kjelle’s left side, forcing her to stand up, then take a step to the side to try stabbing at Severa, but

CLANK

instead loses her balance on the tiny drop, falling to the ground. Severa’s sword is at her throat before she can even pick her lance back up.

“Gods, Kjelle. Could you have figured that out any slower?”

“Shut… it…”

“Also, I’m commandeering your tent, since I, you know, WON.”

Kjelle passes out.

“Oh, great. I suppose I have to carry this hunk of metal all the way to the infirmary!”

Severa lets out a sigh, but in truth, she’s almost as exhausted as Kjelle. Every piece of clothing on her body is absolutely soaked in icky sweat, she feels as gross as a river once most of the shepherds are done with it. She tries to move from her spot in the middle of the ring, but most of her limbs refuse to respond, too. Maybe it wouldn’t be too bad… Taking a nap in all this comfortable gravel…

“Gwah gah!”

Severa spits out some of the gravel she acquired by falling face first into the ground. Her makeup’s probably ruined, too, but at least she didn’t faint before Kjelle did. She gets up to her knees, and sees Sully walking up to help her daughter, and Chrom standing over her, but otherwise, the practice fields are deserted. Chrom says

“Severa, are you all right? That was a good fight, but make sure you aren’t injured before heading out to afternoon exercises.”

“Thanks, but I think I can…”

Severa tries to get up on two feet, but they collapse beneath her each time. This severely affects her snarky scowl, so instead she just continues her long-delayed statement

“...not stand up. I’ll just crawl to the medical tent.”

“Not in that condition, here, put your arm around my shoulder.”

Chrom kneels down next to Severa, offering his right arm. At first Severa flinches, the object of so much pain in the future right in front of her, but then she recalls something else. Severa snippily says

“Chrom, you’re like, twice my height.”

“Oh… right. Just lean on my shoulder, then?”

“Fine, whatever. At least you didn’t send Frederick.”

“Ha! Right, it’d be difficult to not get impaled on that armour of his!”

Severa leans on Chrom’s brand as they walk, probably too fast for how tired she is, but Severa always recovers quickly. She snarks back at Chrom, perturbed that he didn’t get the joke that Frederick is taller than him

“Well, I can certainly see where Lucina gets her sense of humour.”

“Heh, that’s the truth! She once threw a match just so we could train together.”

“Oh, I’ve heard WAY worse, Morgan once told me that she said ‘Robin and Chrom’s ties are so powerful I’m surprised they never “tied” the knot’, or something like that.”

“Hahaha! I’m glad that’s one thing she got from me. Of course, I did honestly think of marrying Robin at first, but when I met my wife… Well, let’s just say I never really looked back.”

“Wow, that’s really something you should just blurt out to everyone.”

“Heh, well, I’m sure Lucina wouldn’t appreciate you telling me about that joke, either.”

Severa’s face turned red, she had no idea that Chrom was good at blackmail. With her brief silence, Chrom figured out something else to say

“I’ve never had a proper conversation with you, Severa. It’s quite a shame, since you are extremely skilled, and I could probably learn some sword techniques from you.”

Severa blushes even harder, the praise coming from someone without mentioning her mother was incredibly satisfying. She bashfully states

“Thanks…”

Chrom doesn’t think anything of her nervous glance down, and just continues on. Severa debates whether she could tell him, and reasons that he had awful parents too, he’ll probably understand. She says

“Most people can’t compliment me without a comparison to Cordelia.”

“Well, you definitely compare favorably, except perhaps in height.”

Severa lets out a bit of a grin, and says

“Yeah, she’s always been a bit gangly. Thanks for the new insult!”

Chrom gives her a stern look, and tries to lecture her

“Severa, you shouldn’t be mean to ANYONE in the army, especially your own parents. We should all work on fostering ties with each other, and make friends with everyone else in the army. That’s why I’m so glad we got this talk.”

Ugh. Severa just couldn’t stand it when people got all preachy. She quickly responded

“We’re at the infirmary, I can handle the rest.”

“All right, take care of yourself.”

Chrom lets her down to the ground in front of the infirmary and walks off to the practice field. One thing was still troubling her, though. Why didn’t her MOM help her instead of Chrom? She was there the entire time, too…

“Oh, Severa, could I ask you something?”

Severa jerked her head back up to where Chrom had reappeared. Apparently he wasn’t done lecturing her… She snapped back

“Chrom, you’re supposed to be practicing too, so only if it’s quick!”

“Uh, all right then, I’ll ask later.”

“Hurry up!”

Chrom was just trying to be nice, so getting rushed off was a bit jarring. It really seemed like he was getting Severa to open up, too. At least he knows not to compare her to Cordelia now. He jogs to get out of her sight, then goes back to walking. What a demanding person.

 

\--

 

Kjelle’s still asleep, but Sully is taking her armour off regardless, the loosest pieces already cast aside. Sully is gingerly removing one of Kjelle’s gauntlets, and doesn’t notice Severa limping onto one of the cots.

“Damn, Kjelle made sure that these would stick on tight!”

Severa watches her work, but Sully’s hands keep slipping on the sweat-soaked gauntlet. Sully begins mumbling, but in the silence of the tent, shouts and commands from the practice session mere faint background texture, Severa hears her clearly

“I can’t believe Kjelle lost to that mercenary! She even had a weapon advantage. I’m gonna kick that Severa’s ass whenever I get the chance.”

Severa was trying to get some rest, but couldn’t resist the perfect moment to surprise Sully, and coughed loudly, sarcastically stating

“Ahem, so now would be an excellent time. That ‘Severa’ girl is even about to fall asleep!”

“Gah! Uh, sorry, I didn’t really mean that.”

“Yeah, sure you didn’t. You know, Kjelle is one of the toughest people I’ve ever faced. If it wasn’t for her stifling armour, she probably would’ve won. I mean, she was clearly fighting through heat stroke.”

Sully stops completely and looks up slightly. She plainly says

“Huh. That does make me feel better. Heh, she wasn’t just fighting you, she was getting roasted as well.”

“Yeah, so stop underestimating Kjelle! Gods, of all the parents to coddle their kids...”

“Jeez, lay off! Besides, I still need to get this armour off of her.”

Severa’s stern expression softens into embarrassment, then she sheepishly adds

“Riiight… I’ll just get some sleep.”

Severa doesn’t truly believe that Sully is a bad person, but everyone in the army can be so dense at times. It did look like Sully was upset about something else, though, but it’s really hard for Severa to keep her eyes open, much less keep thinking. Every muscle aches with a vengeance, determined to pin her to the hard, lumpy medical cot. With a sigh of resignation, she falls fitfully asleep.

Sully managed to get both of the gauntlets off, and just a tiny glimpse at Kjelle’s skin displayed how red and overheated it was. She needed someone who could actually administer medicine, fast. Why didn’t Severa make a bigger deal out of the heat stroke?! Sully glares over at the other cot, just to see a peaceful look, eyes closed and a steady bob of her chest. Severa might be ill as well. Full of a newfound maternal worry, Sully runs off to the practice field to get some help.

 

\--

 

Severa woke up with one overwhelming thought: ‘Oh GAWDS, I almost killed Kjelle!’ Heatstroke is not something to be trifled with, and even without a medical background, Severa was more than smart enough to know that much. She jerked out of bed, her back muscles screeching from the exhortation, and shakily got up onto her legs. Kjelle was nowhere to be found, but Noire was lying peacefully on one of the beds. Severa checked on her to make sure she wasn’t injured, then stepped gingerly out of the tent.

The camp was almost silent, but she could hear scattered whoops and shouts from the direction of the mess tent. It was dinnertime already?! Severa started out at an awkward limp towards the tent, but moved to a jog when it was clear that the pain wasn’t going to get much better. She knew her hair was matted against her back, her clothes were welded to her body, and she smelled like an old boot stuck in the back of a dead fish, but she needed to know if Kjelle was at least still alive.

Quickly reaching the mess tent, Severa throws open the flap and leers inside. With a glare towards anyone glancing her way, she scans through the crowd. The Shepherds are in their usual spots, so she glares at the kids’ table and quickly spots Kjelle. She’s not very talkative, and definitely looks out of it, but she’s alive. As soon as that’s settled, she lets out a short sigh, and trudges off to take a bath.

 

\--

 

As Severa left her tent, fully preened and pretty, she tosses her hair over her shoulder, gazing into the setting sun. Her neck screams its complaints about being moved, but her stomach is much louder, very upset at the null quantity of food it has been given. She’s just about to turn towards the mess tent to pick up some scraps when she hears an exalted voice ring out

“Severa! Are you free now? I’d like to ask you that question that’s been bothering me.”

Severa sighs and turns to address him, voice permeated with sarcasm

“Yeah, I totally wasn’t going to go get something to eat.”

Chrom, completely missing the intent, continues

“Great. Could we talk about this in my tent?” He draws a bit closer “It’s imperative that I get the full truth.”

“Um, my tent is right behind me, we could just use that one if you don’t want anyone else to hear…”

Chrom replies awkwardly

“Right. Thanks.”

Severa opens the tent’s flap for the lord, and he sits down on the stool in front of her vanity mirror. Severa sits down on her cot, allowing plenty of space between them. Chrom opened the conversation by blurting out

“I’ve found out that Cordelia has been uncomfortable around me this past week. Is there anything you know about this? Maybe it happened in the future, too?”

Severa’s face turns bright red. This man was completely oblivious to EVERYTHING! How could he not have seen her pining gazes, her constant sighing whenever he’s around, and obsession with pleasing him at all costs? Severa hides her face in her hands and sighs loudly. Chrom obliviously states

“Yeah, she sighs exactly like that!”

“You’re not the best detective around, are you?”

Chrom leans his head slightly to one side, saying

“What do you mean?”

“Don’t get it into your head that I’m going to help you out at all, but I’ll give you one SINGLE hint. What does she do differently than everyone else in the entire army? Maybe you’ll eventually get the signs through your thick skull.”

Severa’s standing up now, snarling down at the astonished exalt. She adds with an extra sneer

“And if you ever ask me to tell on mo… Cordelia EVER again, I’ll shove so many spiders up your nose you’ll be able to spin a web from it!”

Severa glances up, flinching at her lack of actual willingness to shove spiders up anyone’s nose, then storms out of her own tent. Chrom gapes at the tent flap for a few seconds before heading out himself. He thinks about what he said, how could Severa have interpreted it in such a hostile manner? Her mom probably has some deep, dark secret that makes her so uncomfortable. Wait, Cordelia can use the dark mage class… Oh gods, he needs to apologize!

 

\--

 

Severa arrives at the mess tent far too late to receive any food, and in fact, spies Stahl, Nowi, Ricken and Donnel finishing off the rest of it. She watches from the tent flap as Stahl, in slow motion, puts the last heel of bread into his mouth, Severa’s stomach growling wildly. She hides herself behind the tent’s canvas, turning red at her loud reaction. Maybe Cordelia took pity on her again, and is waiting somewhere with a pot of food. That’d be utterly mortifying, twice in a week that she needs to rely on that perfect pegasus knight?! She could never live that down. Severa sidles around to the back of the mess tent, accidentally eavesdropping on the energetic conversation

“Aw, how come Stahl gets extra bread? Nowi wants some too!”

“Oh, I just grabbed it first. Whoever’s on kitchen duty tomorrow will make more, so just wait.”

“You should’ve asked the lady if she wanted it first, Stahl! Geez, this is like, basic etiquette.”

Donnel softly mutters to Nowi,

“If yer a lady now, am I yer gentleman?”

“Ha! Not a chance! I’m just too cool for yew!”

“Aw, Nowi!”

Stahl tilts his head slightly at Ricken, a confused expression on his face, then replies

“Um, heels of bread aren’t fancy dishes. Maybe your rules could be a bit more lenient for stuff that no one else wants to eat.”

“Right… That was a bit presumptuous of me. Was that seriously the last bite of food, though? I’m starving!”

“Well, Donnel and Nowi arrived to get some food, too, so I guess I could whip up something. How do omelettes sound?”

“Yaaay! Thanks, Stahl!”

“Yeeehaw!”

“Gee, you’re nice, Stahl.”

Severa approaches the pantry, trying to ignore Stahl doing the same thing. He greets her with a

“Oh, Severa! Did you want something, too?”

There’s a bit of a commotion behind them as Ricken tries to light the range with his fire tome, especially when Nowi brings out her dragonstone, but Severa can hear him clearly. She takes her time answering, and says

“Yeah, is there anything I could just take and eat? I don’t want to be around once they set this tent on fire.”

At the least sentence, she shrugs towards the two idiots arguing while holding extremely dangerous, flammable weapons. Donnel quickly takes the lead and lights the range using just a flint and steel. Stahl smiles, but he responds simply

“Unless you like eating raw potatoes, I don’t think so. You could try talking with everyone else while I cook.”

“Ugh. Couldn’t I help you cook instead?”

“Great idea! We could bond over cooking, talk about...”

“Nope, sorry Stahl! See you around!”

Severa swiftly retreats to the middle of the tent, sitting at a table as far away from her prying father as possible. With so many difficult battles left to face, Severa couldn’t stand more than a few moments with either of her parents before tearing up. When Stahl retrieves the eggs, he smiles at her anyway, then gets out the largest skillet the camp has. Donnel appears to be trying to teach Nowi some kind of pebble game while Ricken watches.

“Yup, ya just jump over it like that, an’ then ya can hop the next un, too.”

Ricken suddenly comments

“Oh, you’re teaching her checkers!”

“Huh? I didn’t know it had ‘nuther name.”

“Yeah, and most people play with with a board of squares.”

Severa is eavesdropping, but far from interested. She doesn’t want to be rude and leave while Stahl is cooking, so she slumps forward on to the table and closes her eyes. Her muscles hurt slightly less, but it’s still a comfort to not move for a period of time. She sighs heavily, but jolts upright when she feels a gentle hand on her back. A soothing voice to her side says

“Oh, sorry to surprise you, dear. Did you get anything to eat?”

“Stahl’s making everyone omelettes. And don’t worry about me! It’s annoying!”

Cordelia turns to her derisive daughter, and with completely expected, but still overwhelming grace and warmth

“Severa, my job IS to worry about you.”

Severa’s face turns red, and she hides her face in her hands. Stahl seems to have noticed that Cordelia has arrived, and waves eagerly. Severa, still strapped for an answer, glares at Cordelia through her hands. Abruptly, another voice joins the tent’s noise

“Cordelia… Is this a bad time?”

Severa watches as her mom tenses up at Sully’s voice, then turns and addresses her with a strained smile

“Not at all, do you need anything?”

Sully looks oddly grim, obviously guilty over some action of hers. Cordelia relaxes slightly, but is still defensive, taking on a highly proper posture. Sully sits on the bench directly opposite of Cordelia, saying

“Cordelia, um, I shouldn’t have been insulting you during Severa and Kjelle’s duel. Sorry. That was totally uncalled for.”

With a smile, Cordelia begins to say

“I accept your…”

but is interrupted by a

“Cordelia! Oh, there you are!”

Cordelia responds first, tense from head to shoulders, and with a quavering voice

“Captain?! W-what are you doing here?”

“I’m so sorry I didn’t notice your feelings earlier.”

Chrom rushes over to the bench and sits next to Sully, as far away from Severa as possible. He quickly adds

“Oh, hi Sully, and, um, Severa.”

Severa and Cordelia wear perfectly identical shades of crimson, Sully backs up and tries to vocalize something before Chrom can continue even more awkwardly than before, but he carries on heedlessly, saying

“I didn’t realize that my constant praising of Ylisse and Naga could make you uncomfortable. Plegia was our enemy, but I still should’ve been more sensitive.”

Severa slams her head against the table with a loud SMACK and murmuring of

“ohgodsohgodsohgods how can he be this dumb ohgods…”

Cordelia tries to stifle a chuckle, but instead bursts out

“Oh um er… Chrom, I don’t have any plegian ancestry. Why did you think so?”

Chrom’s face almost becomes as red as Cordelia’s, Sully chokes back a guffaw, Severa continues to moan into the table, and Cordelia hides her face with her hand. Chrom barely sputters out a response

“I um, uh… Well, you can use the dark mage class, and Severa said that you had a dark secret before she stormed out of the tent… I thought she meant that literally…”

“That’s fair. Although I will be having a talk with Severa after this, my ancestors were of Ylissean descent, even if they weren’t one of the well-documented noble houses. Thank you for coming to me first, though, I’m glad you aren’t one to spread rumours.”

“Thanks, Cordelia, Sorry about the mix-up…”

Chrom leaves in shame, slowly trudging out of the tent. He scratches his head once, then is out of sight. Cordelia immediately focuses her attention on Sully, saying

“Well, with that out of the way, I do accept your apology.”

With still barely-contained mirth, Sully says

“Thanks, Cordelia. You don’t deserve any abuse thrown at you. Especially totally wrong disses about your family…”

With a cackle, Sully shoves a hand on her mouth to mute herself, then quickly walks from the tent. Severa stands up to follow her, but Cordelia gives her a pointed look. Severa lets out an impressively loud sigh, and is about to sit down before they hear a massive, rough guffaw from just a few feet outside the tent. Sully had completely cracked up, and kept on laughing for a good few mintues. Severa flinched at first, but sat down anyway. Cordelia waited until Sully’s voice was no longer carrying throughout the entire camp, then said

“So, could you tell me what you told Chrom, please?”

Severa was close to tears. This was so stupid, she shouldn’t have said anything to Chrom. She hastily stated

“Ugh, Chrom went into my tent and asked me why you were uncomfortable around him. I told him to figure it out for himself, then ran away. That’s seriously all I said!”

“And I believe you. Well, take care to enjoy your omelette, Stahl’s cooking really is to die for.”

Cordelia leaves swiftly, sending a smile Severa’s way. Severa looks away so that her mom can’t see the single tear streaking down her still-red face. She slumps back onto the table, more to hide herself than to really get some sleep. She overhears the other inhabitants of the tent, especially Nowi’s excitement at getting the first omelette

“Yaaay! It looks delicious! Donnel, share it with me!”

“Ookay, let me jus’ cut it in ‘alf…”

“Donnel, you couldn’t possibly just carry a knife everywhere. Wouldn’t that rip your clothing?”

“Well, I gots it in a cowskin holder, so it ain’t going nowheres.”

“Neat… Maybe if I got a knife, people would treat me like I’m older…” Severa looks up to see if he’s honestly serious, and he’s legitimately eyeing up the knife in front of him. That kind of idiocy is actually relatively easy to correct. She yells out to Ricken from across the tent

“Right, because showing knives to people is a great way to gain friends. Try saying ‘hand me your purse’ and waving it around when you do so.”

“Hey, just ‘cause I have a knife doesn’t mean I’ll turn into a common crook!”

“I’m just saying, you get a knife, people will think you’re compensating for something.”

Stahl turns around with another omelette, and quickly interrupts before Ricken can comment further

“Ricken! Your omelette is ready.”

“Great! Thanks, Stahl!”

Ricken glares at Severa’s hair, her face firmly planted on the table. Not quite satisfied, but not quite mad enough to argue any further, he digs into the delicious omelette. Even without cheese or meat, Stahl still managed to make it quite delectable. The cavalier chef calls out to Severa loudly, trying to wake up the clearly exhausted mercenary

“Severa! Your omelette is ready too!”

“You know, I’m not deaf.” After a short pause, she looks up and smiles, saying “Uh, but thanks, too.”

Severa limps up to the range, and hastily finds a plate when she realizes that Stahl hasn’t supplied any. She looks at the egg wrap, and realizes that it’s much larger than the other two. She points at it and opens her mouth, but Stahl says

“You didn’t get dinner, right?”

“Thanks…”

Making Severa blush. She leaves without another word.

 

\--

 

Some of her physical needs sated, Severa ignores the pains growing through her body, and heads over to Kjelle’s tent. It’s not quite 11 o’clock yet, but she needs to make sure everything’s in proper order. Who knows what Kjelle thinks proper seating arrangements are? Maybe all of the chairs are made out of spears and lengths of metal.

Not even bothering to announce her presence, Severa nearly falls through the flap into Kjelle’s tent. She finds a few well-stocked lanterns in the corners, and six logs placed almost completely circularly, the stumps themselves perfect for sitting on. Alternatively, they could be used for what Kjelle’s doing right now, which is sleeping on three of them. Severa walks over and almost bashfully looks at her sleeping form. Kjelle isn’t actually wearing her armour, either, so she’d be even easier to wake up. First, Severa waves in front of her face, just to check if she’s actually awake. Her hand is snatched out of midair. Kjelle says, without opening her eyes

“Severa. Is anyone else here yet?”

“No, but it wouldn’t kill you to look presentable for once in your life.”

Kjelle suddenly opens her eyes and glares directly at Severa, dropping the stolen hand, and says

“You’re sure? Every one of my limbs feels like it’s on fire. Just standing up would be self-harm comparable to eating a cactus.”

“How about I pick you up, then?”

Severa’s stern expression told Kjelle that she wasn’t joking. The mercenary leaned over Kjelle intimidatingly, gradually moving her hands to Kjelle’s sides. Kjelle grinned a tiny bit, saying

“Oh, you just want an excuse to hold me.”

Kjelle makes no moves to stop Severa, but puts on a snarl as a sign of false bravado. Her face was gradually getting redder as Severa moved closer. Severa’s face was reflecting the same redness, and stalled as her hands touched Kjelle’s left side and right shoulder. The tension is palpable, but Severa disengages and turns her head towards the front of the tent, snapping out

“I don’t need an EXCUSE to hold you.”

Kjelle sits up, and says

“Would you if I asked?”

Severa sits down next to her, saying

“Maybe we should just survive this night, then think about our relationship later.”

Kjelle sits, slightly stunned. Both of their faces are bright shades of crimson, but Kjelle feels that she’s more embarrassed at the moment. She gapes open her mouth, fishing for words to express her delight and surprise, but Severa notices, and covers her mouth, clearly distraught. Severa spits out

“I-I mean, J-just as friends right now.”

“I… Ok.”

They sit there for a second, staring into the canvas in front of them. Severa, the girl who refuses to open up. Kjelle, the girl who refuses to show any weakness. Severa knows Kjelle has feelings for her. Kjelle feels that Severa can give her a chance. Severa breaks the silence first

“But, I think we should go out. I- I mean, without the…”

Kjelle tackles her to the ground, smacking her side against the log, but neither of them care at the moment. Their aches and pains are lost as Kjelle holds Severa tight to her. The knight presses her face into Severa’s exquisitely maintained hair right above her shoulder, getting an excellent view of the dirt floor before she closes her eyes and just enjoys having the love of her life so close. Severa sputters out a few more syllables, something to the effect of

“p-public displays of a-affection…”

but sighs softly, the most contented sigh Kjelle’s ever heard, right into the knight’s ear. Severa wraps her arms around Kjelle, and Kjelle moves hers from behind Severa, and begins stroking her hair with one of them. The moment is completely ruined when they hear a strangely serious

“Kjelle, are you all right?”

“Yeah, I’ll just be a second...”

Kjelle tries to pull herself up using a log, but the stress is obviously painful, so Severa sighs and shoves her up. Kjelle flashes a betrayed look at Severa, but retains her balance and manages to prop herself up on the log. Nah and Cynthia arrived at the same time, but the manakete has already sat down, so Cynthia announces

“The mighty hero reveals herself! Oh, what’s Severa doing on the ground? Wasn’t Kjelle just there?”

“Aaanyway, how are you two doing?”

Severa awkwardly tries to change the subject while hastily scrambling up onto a log. Fire lashes down her arms, but trying to be slightly less embarrassed is much more important. Nah motions for Cynthia to sit down next to her by tapping the log, so Cynthia plays dumb and taps the log as well. Nah gets fed up and just says

“Cynthia!”

Cynthia giggles, but sits on the log obediently, turning to Nah as she tries to ask Severa something. Nah says, very formally

“Actually, Severa, Cynthia and I were kind of concerned about you and Kjelle. That was a really intense fight, and we didn’t see you at practice afterwards, what exactly…” Cynthia suddenly leans over and kisses her wetly on the cheek, Nah immediately exclaiming “AGH CYNTHIA!!”

“Hahaha!”

Is Cynthia’s only response. Nah punches her on the shoulder, then with a swiftly blushing face, says

“We haven’t even told anyone except our moms that we’re even dating!”

Now it’s Cynthia’s turn to blush, as she sheepishly says

“Right… Sorry about that, Nah.”

She tries to put forth a sad face, but before Nah can call her out on it, Severa interrupts

“Well, I already knew, and I don’t think Kjelle cares, so you can stop blushing already.”

“But Nah’s so cuuute when she blushes!”

“No, don’t look at me!”

Cynthia and Nah stare into each other’s eyes, equally close to cracking up. Kjelle looks at Severa warily, who just looks back and rolls her eyes. Another figure appears through the tent flap, apologizing immediately

“Severa, Kjelle, my apologies. I am late by multiple minutes.”

Severa gives her a look that says ‘Really?’ and then says physically

“Oh come on, even someone as uptight as you can’t take that seriously.”

“Perhaps not. I also brought Noire.”

Noire tries to avoid the gaze of Cynthia, Nah, and Kjelle, and ends up sitting next to Severa. Lucina sits down next to Kjelle. As soon as Severa doesn’t have a snarky response, Nah asks her question again

“Severa, I actually did want to know the answer to that question. Are you two doing all right?”

“We’re fine, right, Kjelle?”

“Yeah, totally. How was practice?”

Noire, Nah, and Cynthia’s worries haven’t been dissuaded in the slightest, and Nah insistently says

“Right, crawling on the ground to get into your chair is perfectly fine and normal.”

“Although if you want to do it more often, I’m sure the whole camp would appreciate the spectacle.”

Cynthia gives a big grin, but Nah glares at her. Noire and Lucina look at Severa with the utmost concern, prompting her to speak

“Fine, fine, I almost killed Kjelle, is that enough?”

The girls gape at Severa, then Kjelle says

“Huh? I just remember you winning, then waking up in the medical tent later. What even happened?”

“You almost had a heat stroke. After beating each other up for, like, a ridiculous amount of time, your armour was really, really hot. I fainted in the infirmary before I could help, your mom went and got Lissa. Seriously, did no one tell you what happened?!”

Lucina looks a tad guilty, saying

“Well, my parents rushed everyone over to the practice field before your battle ended, so only Chrom and Sully were supervising, so…”

Lucina stalls for a moment, trying to think up a polite way to say this, but Severa interrupts

“Yeah, they’re both socially inept. Sully would probably end up making it sound like no big deal, and Chrom probably forgot.”

“That is one, possible, and very rude, explanation. Kjelle, do you feel fine now?”

“Yes, I’m just wrapping my brain around what happened. Now I know why Sully and Lissa looked so desperate, and why so many staves were lying around…”

“It sounds as though you’re feeling perfectly all right, Severa. By the way, why didn’t you invite Noire’s sibling, Morgan?”

“Well, the same reason I didn’t invite any of the guys. Maybe it’ll work out and we can them later, but Yarne and Inigo’s relationship is so weird that they’d probably end up throwing these logs at each other.”

“Very true. Thankfully, their antics seem to be…”

Cynthia suddenly interrupts, jumping up with a waving motion, and says

“Riling everyone else up! Ha, remember when Inigo tried to use YARNE as his wingman, and ended up getting chased out of town with pitchforks and torches? Well, I was flying around, and I saw that EXACT SAME thing happen today! Inigo was even riding on Yarne and EVERYTHING!”

Severa and Kjelle burst out laughing, and Noire and Lucina join in with little chuckles. Nah looks ashamed at Cynthia, but is clearly amused regardless. Lucina quickly becomes more serious once Cynthia sits back down, saying

“Did they at least come back with the spices?”

“Oh, I didn’t check. Did the food taste OK?”

The reaction from Kjelle, Nah, and Noire was palpable, they all looked absolutely disgusted. Kjelle spoke first

“We are never letting Say’ri cook again. That was the most bitter stew I’ve had in my entire life.”

“Definitely! Did you see that Yen’fay and Lon’qu were helping, too?! Maybe Robin has a vengeance against us.”

Noire added with an excessive amount of zeal

“Yes, we shall declare vengeance on our tasteless tactician! Our buds of tasting cry in loss!”

Nah suddenly stares at Cynthia with an expression on her face like she’s looking at a particularly weird bug, and says

“Wait, how did you NOT know that it tasted awful?”

“Um, ‘cause it didn’t? I thought it was pretty good, actually.”

Lucina adds, thoughtfully saying

“I concur. Besides, it was an excellent way of learning more about the culture of Chon’sin.”

Cynthia pipes up again, and eagerly says

“Severa, what did you think? I’m surprised you haven’t offered up any dry witticisms yet!”

“Uh, I didn’t actually have any.” Severa blushed slightly under the glares from half the tent, and amusement from the other half. Noire comments first, much more bashfully than before

“I’m… glad, it was simply terrible.”

“Well, I’m not glad! Nah, we have to make it for Severa, if anything, just to punish her for being such an ice queen.”

“Hey! I organized this thing!”

“Hehehe!”

“Although, if I really wanted to be mean, I could say that…”

Cynthia raises her hand, saying

“Ooh, ooh, pick me!”

Severa completely ignores Cynthia, instead staring directly at Nah, who’s blushing beyond belief. Severa continues

“... You and Nah are dating.”

“Aw, I thought you were going to mention falling asleep on each other after the big competition we had.”

Lucina smiles at the couple, saying,

“How lucky for you. You definitely have my blessing”

Nah’s face becomes even redder, and she flashes a glare at Severa before saying

“Lucina, we aren’t getting married just yet. I mean, we only started dating a month ago.”

“Oh? My own parents only knew each other for…”

Severa rolls her eyes before commenting

“Right, and both of them are SUCH sterling examples of normalcy. Like your father: ‘Hey, let’s go into the bath where I know Robin is, they never wash, right?’ or ‘Let’s take a few random soldiers and go on a date, completely unannounced so that everyone worries where we’ve gone off to’.”

Lucina blushes at the stories of her parents, but then starts as she realizes something

“Wait, how did you know about that? I’ve never heard how they fell in love myself!”

Severa has to blush at Lucina’s obviously upset, serious stare. This was something that she wasn’t exactly ready to admit herself, since it involved, well… Severa sighs, then says

“Ugh, I was just interviewing Cordelia, trying to find out how messed up everything was, when she recounts that story about Chrom bursting into the bath tent. Then I was talking to your parent, who tried to convince me that they weren’t like Cordelia, since they did stupid things like that.”

“Thank you, Severa, I’ll have to ask father and Robin about that…”

“Please, please don’t, or at LEAST don’t mention me.”

“Oh, ok.”

Cynthia appears to have been waiting through the entire story for this next energetic outburst, saying

“Cool! How much dirt do you have on my parents? I mean, this sounds pretty sneaky!”

“Gods, Cynthia, I don’t go around LOOKING for this kind of stuff! I guess everyone already thinks I’m a skank, but that’s hardly my fault.”

Kjelle guffaws, saying

“If you want that to be true, you should stop insulting people constantly. I mean, we’re dating, and you haven’t let up at all.”

Kjelle keeps a straight face while staring directly at Severa, maintaining eye contact with the blushing mercenary as Lucina prepares another congratulations, saying

“You are an odd couple, but you have my blessing as well.”

Severa keeps staring at Kjelle, but addresses Lucina anyway, definitely snarkily

“Lucina, you aren’t Exalt any more, and haven’t even done a wedding ceremony in at least six years. Of course, who would you be without excessive formality?”

“Very true, but isn’t it just a polite thing to say? I mean, I hear Chrom say it to…”

Most of the tent cracks up at this, Lucina obliviously blundering into another reference to her extremely abnormal parents. She asks, level, but confused,

“What’s so funny?”

Nah takes the lead this time, mature enough to not laugh excessively, and says

“What position does your father have?”

Kjelle watches with fascination as Lucina’s brain gradually puts the pieces together, the gears laboriously shifting with the expression on her face. Lucina says, perfectly comedically timed with Cynthia and Severa’s cessation of laughter,

“Oh. Right. I apologize for my dense nature.”

Cynthia and Severa laugh even harder at this, and get punched by their girlfriends. Noire finally gets the nerve to say something, stating

“Lucina, I think we all like you just the way you are. You’re a great leader, and, and I wouldn’t want you to change a thing.”

Severa responds sheepishly, but with definite goodwill,

“Well, duh, but it’s still funny…”

Lucina stares at Severa and shakes her head, but then shifts her head to Noire, saying

“Thank you, I truly appreciate that.”

There’s a slight lull in the conversation as Severa stares from Noire to Lucina, imagining the shipping possibilities, Cynthia tries to figure out what Severa’s doing, and Nah pines for attention from Cynthia. Kjelle uses this to ask Lucina a question directly

“Hey, Lucina, of what little you saw of my duel with Severa, what did you think about my lance technique?”

Cynthia answers it instead, though

“Oh, it was so cool! Severa was like, jump jump stab, and you were like, whoosh whoosh block! I really liked it when you hit her in the face with your shield!”

“HEY! What if I hit YOUR ugly face with a shield?!”

“You don’t even have a class cool enough to HAVE a shield!”

“I’ve got, like, twelve classes with shields, lamebrain!”

“Better than your SNARKbrain!”

“GAH!”

They’re both standing up now, glaring daggers across the tent, when suddenly an ACTUAL dagger shows up. Gaius, still dressed up in his assassin uniform, walks briskly through the tent flap. He announces

“You’ve got twelve seconds to actually go to sleep before I sic Frederick on you. Seriously, I heard your shouting from the picket line.”

“Isn’t the picket line, like, just a few yards from the camp? Yeah, really hard there.”

“Ugh, why did you girls have to bring Severa.”

Lucina quickly responds

“Actually, Severa set this all up.”

Severa bashfully replies

“Well, not ALL of it, Kjelle moved the logs and lanterns in here, and Gaius was the AWFUL PARTY CRASHER.”

“Right, the guy who wants to get a decent amount of sleep after a night shift is definitely the one at fault here. Aaanyway, does anyone want to see what Frederick’s up to this time of night? I’ll just be…”

Nah interrupts, saying

“Hey, the rest of us are going to our tents, if you want to punish someone, try Severa.”

“Hey! Gods, I can’t be the ONLY one at fault here.”

“Nope, you pretty much are! Tehehe!”

Cynthia’s cheery voice doesn’t do much to dissuade Gaius, who responds

“You know, it was your screeching ‘SNARKbrain’ comment which finally made me get over here.”

“Eeep. Sorry, dad…”

Gaius smiles to indicate he’s not mad at all, but turns around to continue to reprimand the others. His comment is interrupted by Kjelle saying

“Actually, before everyone leaves, could you remove a stump for me? That fight left me completely exhausted.”

“Wait, you moved all this here BEFORE I won? Aw, Kjelle…”

Kjelle blushes as Severa takes her hand, saying

“Sh-shut up, it was just in the miniscule percent chance that I lost. N-nothing nice about it…”

Nah covers her eyes and sighs, Lucina and Noire are totally impassive, and Gaius looks at Cynthia with a raised eyebrow. She enthusiastically responds, in a stage whisper

“Yeah, they’re totally doing it! Wait, I mean…”

“CYNTHIA! GAWDS!”

Nah hastily responds to the confused gaze of Gaius, Lucina and Noire, and the mortification of Kjelle and Severa, explaining

“No, they’re just dating. I think Severa just needs a lesson on what the meaning of certain words are.”

“Huh? What does that mean?”

“WE ARE NOT HAVING SEX!”

“Oh, hehe, sorry about that…”

“Ok, let’s move these logs and get you six off to bed. Kjelle, do you need any help with the lanterns?”

“Nope.”

The girls swiftly hop to work, Nah, Lucina, Gaius, and Cynthia pick up one of the heavy logs each, Gaius complaining

“Urgh… What kind of tree did you chop… down…”

“It was a pretty thick oak tree up until my axe caught word of it. Also, just put the logs right outside my tent, I can use them as a morning warm-up.”

Severa and Noire struggle to help each other lift one log, but finally get it in the air to move the required six feet. Kjelle picks up the last log with one hand. Lucina gives the closing speech to round out the night, saying

“That was most enjoyable. I hope we can do this again someday.”

Severa comments with a weirded out expression

“Well, I was thinking we could turn this into a regular thing. Maybe we could meet up for just a half hour, though, so no one comes over to yell at us.”

She pointedly leers at Gaius, who throws his hands up sarcastically and walks away, saying behind him

“Have a good night yourself, Severa. Try not to cut yourself on that sharp wit of yours.”

“Thanks! I WILL!”

Lucina leaves silently. Nah and Cynthia don’t bother with closing remarks either, but are clearly gossiping with each other about what happened tonight. Noire stands there, tapping her feet together awkwardly, then says

“S-severa, could you…”

“Fine, I’ll escort you to your tent.”

Kjelle watches them leave, but definitely catches Severa turning around to catch a glimpse of the courageous knight. She smiles back, and Severa blushes. Kjelle returns to her tent before Severa steps out of sight, gets her bedroll down, then puts the lanterns out. She sleeps very soundly that night.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Epilogue
> 
> Kjelle and Severa stand on that accursed island, the body of their ultimate foe slowly dissipating. All Severa's pessimism, and both of her parents are alive. All Kjelle's practice, and they finally did it. They stand with each other, but Severa can't hold back her shock for very long. She wraps her arms around Kjelle's waist, and just cries into her shoulder. It's long, wracked with pain, but with the comforting metal gauntlet on her back, she knows that everything's all right. Kjelle looks at her, tears staining her eyes as well, and says
> 
> "Could I have a turn?"
> 
> Severa laughs, stands up, and cradles Kjelle against her body. The sudden weight of the stalwart knight and her armour forces her to collapse to the ground with an
> 
> "Ooof! You big galoot!"
> 
> "Hey! You were the one who wasn't prepared. I should complain about your scrawniness."
> 
> "Well, you're stuck with me, so get used to it!"
> 
> "Yeah... And you are weirdly strong for how shrimpy you are. Maybe a few midnight training sessions, and you'll have some bulk."
> 
> "Oh, just try me! I'll train twice as hard as you."
> 
> "Wait, seriously? I mean, I've always wanted to keep up my training even after the war was over, but you?"
> 
> "Well, I need to make sure I can keep up my perfect win streak against you, and could you imagine me as a trophy wife?! That'd be AWFUL!"
> 
> "We've only ever had that one duel! Also, you're more than pretty enough to be a trophy..."
> 
> Severa blushes as KJelle works her way up to Severa's face. The knight just stares lovingly for a moment as Severa blushes harder and harder, then spits out
> 
> "Just get it over with already!"
> 
> "I love you."
> 
> "I- I love you too."
> 
> Kjelle and Severa's lips meet, in perfect harmony. Perfectly awkward, that is. They're still really new to this whole kissing thing. Severa breaks away to sneer, then says
> 
> "No, you're supposed to move your lips WITH mine, not try to shove them in my mouth!"
> 
> "Argh! This is too complicated! First the makeup, now kissing?"
> 
> "Well, I'm sure practice can help..."
> 
> Severa romantically closes her eyes, and Kjelle just takes a moment to admire how pretty she looks, even with matted hair, bruises covering every part of her body, and silly puckered lips. Kjelle leans in and tries again. She does enjoy practicing.


End file.
